


New Earth

by Kizmet



Series: Chasing Ideal [10]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: And where they lead, Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Good Intentions, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War, Pro-Accords, The Accords aren't perfect, They're better than anarchy, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-07 00:31:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10348311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet
Summary: Preparations are made to implement Hank Pym's suggestion for protecting the future of the human race from Thanos' coming:  Packing up whole cities and moving them to a new world.





	1. Westward Ho!

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a one shot, but I'm well over my normal words/chapter count and still going so... A two-shot?
> 
> Cast:
> 
> Current Avengers line-up:
> 
> James Rhodes/War Machine  
> Vision  
> Hope van Dyne/Wasp  
> Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel  
> Alexei Shostakov/Ronin: Best known as Red Guardian but he and Carol were basically turned over to the Avengers after their powers became public during the confrontation with Wanda back in “Uncompromising Principles” I’ve been using Ronin instead.  
> Peter Parker/Spider-Man 
> 
> Other SHRA signatories:  
> Matt Murdock (but he’s still hiding that he’s Daredevil)  
> Jessica Jones  
> Luke Cage  
> (Assume all the Defenders exist but until I catch up on Marvel TV they’re more likely to be cameos only)  
> Angela del Toro/White Tiger  
> Pepper Potts
> 
> Avengers Academy Students:  
> Terry Ward/Trauma - Fear projection/reading (from “Avengers: Initiative”, 17 in 2019)  
> Melati Kusuma/Komodo - Lizard girl, (from “Avengers: Initiative”, in her mid 20’s)  
> Abby Boylen/Cloud 9 - rides a flying cloud, sharpshooter (from “Avengers: Initiative”, 16 in 2019)  
> Nico Minoru/Sister Grimm - Magic (from “Runaways”, 17 in 2019)  
> Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel - shapeshifting (from “Ms. Marvel”, 16 in 2019)  
> David Alleyne/Prodigy - Mutant (switch to Inhuman), absorbs knowledge/skills short term, high intelligence (“Young Avengers”/”New Mutants”, 22 in 2019)  
> Harley Keener/Iron Man - starting when he turns 18 in 2020
> 
> I pulled the 2nd generation characters primarily from non-X-Men titles that I read: aka “Young Avengers”, “Avengers: Initiative” and “Runaways”. Since superheroing is a successfully regulated activity in this universe, teens with powers start training to control them as soon as they’re discovered but aren’t allowed to train for combat until 18. Mechanically enhanced teens like Harley can start training/operating once they’re eighteen. And no one’s quite figured out what to do with teens who want to be skill-based heroes yet. Kate Bishop (Young Avengers) is the unnamed teen archer Rhodes references. 
> 
> Inhumans
> 
> Afterlife aside, the MCU Inhumans don’t really seem to have the completely separate society that they have in the comics so I decided to make their names less codename like.
> 
> Black Bolt = Brian Bolt  
> Medusa = Melanie Amaquelin  
> Karnak Mander-Azur = Kamal Megat  
> Maximus = Max Bolt  
> Crystal = Crystal Amaquelin

**October 2019**

Hank set the last Pym Particle Relay Stave on a hill just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

The first wave of Thanos’ army was expected to reach Earth in three months, the latest Nova Empire transport ship would leave in two. A list of fifty cities from across the world had been made up and voted on, cities that had declined had been replaced with new candidates. A measly fifty cities chosen to be removed before the war came, to protect humanity’s culture and history, to represent humanity’s culture and history. A failsafe if the Earth didn’t survive, the means of giving humans a head start on a new planet.

* * *

**April 2018**

Hank and Hope sat in the dining room pouring over maps of the cities on the second tier list. Paxton opened the door from the living room, “Anything Maggie or I could do to help?” he asked as the sound of the Late Show drifted in. 

“Today the Canadian Prime Minister addressed the UN about the omission of any Canadian cities in the first fifty offered the Pym Option. His remarks were greeted with widespread shock… Who knew Canada had cities?

“Meanwhile Paris becomes the first capital city to vote to go. Their president reminded the world that Paris is not just a capital city but home to many famous monuments, the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, a center of culture and history for the world… Still France is bugging out, are we really surprised?

“Singapore, the Island of Mozambique and San Francisco are going, Hong Kong, Honolulu and Montreal are currently at the top of the list for Arc Shields. It’s a good time to be an island or peninsula city… Or to be an Avengers’ home city. Who doesn’t think that there’s an Arc Shield at the Stark Mansion in Malibu. That’ll take care of what? His house and his three closest neighbors, right? L.A.’s purchased three Arc Shields but at the rate discussions are going the aliens will have been and gone before we decide where to put it. Well, this is one way to deal with the problem of urban sprawl- Let the aliens blow it up. 

“And while many countries complain about European and US cities being over represented in the fifty cities being offered first choice about whether or not they want to leave the Earth as we go into the second round choices there are some who ask should we be saving our natural wonders rather than just considering the man-made ones. For example the Great Barrier Reef, isn’t it more worth saving than Charleston? Now it’s pretty clear that the people advocating this don’t exactly see eye-to-eye with the groups worried about accidentally introducing non-native species to New Earth… I think we should look to our heroes for a solution to this debate: Let’s round up representatives from both camps and dump them in an airport to duke it out… Or maybe a china shop, an airport isn’t really fair given that the average person wouldn’t be able pile up cars like each other like they were matchbox models or rip the wing off an airplane and use it as a bat.”

Hank rolled his eyes. “I’m in for another round of explaining that we can’t just go around shrinking and growing animals wholesale aren’t I,” he groaned. “Every single time I think I’ve got it settled, that everyone understands that we can take genetic banks of Earth’s animals and hope gestation tanks don’t stay science fiction but that is it! Then some idiot brings up Noah’s Arc in the media and I’m back on the merry-go-round because some politician’s constituency didn’t understand why that won’t work the last dozen times I explained.” 

“Don’t look at me,” Hope said. “I’m still arguing that we should fumigate or irradiate the shrunken cities to minimize the accidental introduction of Earth insects and vermin.”

“And I say it’s pointless to worry. We’re importing humans, either we’re going to give our new neighbors Smallpox or we’re going to get their variant of it or both,” Hank stated.

Paxton looked thoughtful, “The Nova Empire already includes dozens of different aliens right? I’d think they’ve either dealt with that or alien means too alien to share germs.”

* * *

**June 2018**

“Hey Sam,” Terry whispered into his phone. He sat in his favorite quiet spot on the outskirts of the old Avengers Compound, now a training facility for new Enhanced.

“Terry, I thought you were starting to make friends,” Sam said.

“I don't just call when something's wrong,” Terry protested then flushed because he hadn't talked to Sam since he'd started feeling like he belonged at the Academy.

Sam didn't say anything.

“It's the New Earth thing,” Terry admitted. “I want to go but everyone here is completely gung-ho about joining hero teams and defending the Earth. I don't want to fight, I suck at fighting. I can't possibly be on a team because anyone near me when I use my powers goes mental. I’m not a soldier, I'm a freaking anti-personnel bomb.”

“So what's stopping you?” Sam asked.

“They're going to think I'm a coward,” Terry sighed. “My friends’ll hate me. The news never shuts up about how Enhanced are the Earth’s only shot against Thanos. They've been showing clips of the Hulk versus the Army on constant repeat. Colonel Rhodes and Major Danvers have gone to the SHRA committee so many times to keep me at school instead of in a prison, cause my control sucks and now I want to run?”

“Terry, you have to do what’s right for you,” Sam said. “Just because you have powers it doesn’t mean they’re the right powers for every battle, or even for any battle. Having powers doesn’t mean that you have the temperament or inclination to be a soldier. Your powers aren’t- You don’t have to let them define you. Maybe you could talk to Vision, he chose not to use the Mind Stone’s power, hasn’t since-” Sam broke off before he could say, “Since he missed me and crippled Rhodes.”

“Vision?!” Terry snorted. “Well, yeah, I guess they kept it out of the news but it’s all over campus. Those Nova Corps guys? They tried to apprehend Vision. They’re demanding he leaves Earth, because of the Mind Stone. They think it’s too dangerous to have an Infinity Stone on Earth because if Thanos gets it he’ll be that much more dangerous and there’s two of them on Earth. No one knows where the second one is but the one in Vision’s head is pretty hard to miss.”

“What? What happened?” Sam demanded.

“Vision was working with Hall, Morley and Alisa on controlling their intangibility powers… So um when the Nova guys came, Vision had them all go intangible and well, he glared at them until they gave up and went away,” Terry said. “So how can I talked to Vision about wanting to go when people are trying to drag him away to somewhere safe and he’s not letting them?”

* * *

**August 2018**

“By executive order the United States joins the growing list of countries to make military service in the upcoming War for the World mandatory for all Enhanced...”

Rhodes glanced up at the knock on his door and Pepper let herself in, “You heard?” he said.

“I called Foggy and Matt, they’re already in the process of filing an injunction,” Pepper said. 

“And I’ll get Talbot and Ross on the phone, hopefully they’re not fully on board with this crap,” Rhodes sighed.

* * *

“I don’t see what your problem is,” General Talbot said. “It just a draft.”

“Not by my understanding of the term,” Rhodes objected. “You’re saying we’d exempt Enhanced Individuals from eligibility to immigrate to New Earth and that they’d all be required for military service until the threat represented by Thanos is eliminated? In this country a draft requires both an element of chance in who gets selected out of the population and the service cannot be indefinite. All the countries mentioned as having already implemented something similar already had a period of required military service for their citizens. They’re moving enhanced individuals who are already in their military into specialized units. In some cases they’re adding women who are enhanced to the population required to serve and they’re talking about reactivating people who already completed their service if they’re enhanced, which should run into legal issues. But by creating mandatory service, indefinite service for enhanced individuals, for a certain classification of people… Well, frankly that sounds less like a draft than slavery to me.”

“The Avengers and other teams like them are needed,” Everett Ross stated. “That’s been shown time and time again. That’s the underlying principal of the Sokovia Accords. Us normal people who went through all the regular channels: training, regulation, personality assessment, working through a chain of command or being elected, in order to be put in a position of deciding and enforcing laws? We don’t like you. We don’t like that, by virtue of genetics, experimentation or happenstance you- Well, not you personally Colonel, you actually did pay your dues. -But ‘you’ in the general sense of enhanced persons got to skip all that and outranked those of us who had done the work by virtue of existing. But the world needs you so we just have to suck it up and deal. Well right now the world needs you, all of you, so you’re going to help keep this planet in one piece! I mean what other choice are they going to have when the Chitauri show up? Watch the Earth burn?”

“I don’t know? Join Thanos because they hate us for not letting them leave?” Rhodes snapped sarcastically. “There is a mass migration going on if you haven’t noticed. Okay the first two boats out had empty berths but you know we had to implement a lottery system for those choosing to emigrate this last time and it’s only going to get worse as the threat gets more real for people.” 

“Not a simple lottery,” Talbot pointed out. “We’ve reserved twenty percent of the slots for those with professions that are going to be needed to get New Earth up and running. And if there wasn’t such a demand for unskilled labor that number would be higher. We’re sending people needed to make New Earth a success, why wouldn’t we keep the people needed to defend the planet here?”

“It’s not right,” Rhodes stated.

“The courts upheld a male only draft based on the military’s needs,” Talbot pointed out, “I think this one will hold as well.”

Rhodes scowled. “I might have a hard time leading the Avengers to enforce such a policy,” he said. “I’m too busy training and supporting the people who have volunteered to defend the planet to waste time and inspire divisiveness by trying to build a new Berlin Wall.”

* * *

The video appeared on YouTube only six hours after the Enhanced Draft was announced. The timing led to speculation about moles and telepaths but cooler heads suggested that the executive order might have been anticipated based on other countries which had already adopted similar measures.

In the video a young woman with vibrant red hair that flowed around her like a living thing and her solemn companion stood on a small hill, Mount Rushmore towered behind them. “We are Brian Bolt and Melanie Amaquelin of the Inhumans. We are here to say that we will not be conscripted into defending a planet that has never been other than hostile to us. We have been put on lists, hunted and experimented on. We have been pushed into the margins of society, criminalized for our abilities rather than our actions. When all we asked was to be left alone you dug us out of our sanctuary and brought death and destruction to the land we had built for ourselves. And now you need us and say we MUST come to your aid? 

“We say to you ‘No!’ We will not fight you. We will not be held hostage on this planet the blessings of which have always been withheld from us. Our people wish to leave, we want our one and only city to take with us. If you refuse us… You will have a fight on your hands before Thanos ever arrives.”

Her companion turned and spoke: “Release us.” and the statue of Lincoln crumbled.

* * *

**November 2018**

“We won’t give in to terrorist tactics,” General Talbot thundered. “That Amaquelin girl? Her sister’s in jail for ties to HYDRA.”

“Six of the Academy students were pulled last week, their parents have all appealed directly to the Nova Corps to be allowed to evacuate. Their parents want to leave, are you planning on breaking up their families? Ordering the kids to stay behind because we need them to fight?” Rhodes demanded. “The oldest of the kids was fourteen and their parents are afraid you’re going to make them fight a war. How many times have we told the kids that we wouldn’t even train them to use their powers to fight until they were eighteen? How many times? Now we’re telling them ‘fight or die’?”

Talbot glanced away.

“The first wave of the armada will be here in sixteen months! What are you planning on doing? Holding them here until they’re eighteen then throwing them into battle if the war’s still going?” Rhodes continued. “You or Ross have raked me over the coals every single time I’ve let the kids help with humanitarian missions. You’ve insisted and, excluding Spider-Man who was grandfathered in, I’ve supported not even beginning training until they’re eighteen so that they’re old enough to be sure this is what they want to do before we induct them. I haven’t even trained Harley to use Iron Man and he’s Tony’s hand-picked successor. But now you’re telling me they don’t have a choice, they have to fight in this war? Then I need to start training them yesterday. These kids aren’t infantry, most of them need more than Basic before they’re good to fight.”

“Maybe there should have been more discussion about underaged Enhanced before the order was put in place,” Talbot admitted. 

“At this point immigrating to New Earth is essentially a reverse draft,” Rhodey said. “The scale of what we’re expecting, just staying on Earth during the fighting will mean being involved, even if it’s just at the level of living in London during the Blitz. We’re giving everyone else a chance to get out of the fighting, excluded Enhanced from that is just wrong.”

“We’ve limited the berths allowed for police and members of the military because they are needed here,” Talbot replied.

“Not to zero,” Rhodey said. “As much as we need those individuals here, they’re needed on New Earth too. Who’s to say we won’t need Enhanced as well. 

“Besides, not every Enhanced is automatically more qualified than a trained soldier. I’ve got a seventeen year old girl who snuck into the Academy and put an arrow perfectly through half the targets in shooting range before the instructors managed to corral her. Not a damn thing Enhanced about her, but with a little training she could give Barton a run for his money. Meanwhile I've got an Enhanced kid, about the same age, but he's more of a bomb than a soldier. I send him out he’ll do damage, but he's not the Hulk, odds are he won't come back. It's just how his powers work. What makes him essential to the war but not her?”

* * *

**December 2018**

Maggie Lang’s mouth quirked up as Pepper ushered her into the Malibu mansion’s front room and she got a look at the Christmas tree from the inside of the house. From the outside the tree was perfectly framed by the front window, clearly chosen and decorated by a professional. From the inside the expensive, perfectly spaced and complimentary ornaments had been taken down and replaced with a mishmash of school crafts and family treasures. 

There was a collection of wooden nutcrackers with chipped paint and tiny angels with bent wings. A carefully preserved cutout of the nativity scene and a laughing Santa. A handful of crochet snowflakes made by Marlena’s great aunt when she’d been a child and little bird with bright red feathers that Pepper had dug out of storage, nearly forgotten after years of Christmas parties that were about business connections not family. There were Hallmark event ornaments marking Harley’s first christmas in 2002, Mercedes’ in 2007, a new house in 2003. And a brand new ornament for Nettie in 2017 along with retroactively created ornaments for Dum-E, 1987, You, 1990, JARVIS, 1994, Butterfingers, 1996, FRIDAY, 2011 and Vision, 2015. There were dozens of hand crafted ornaments from every year at preschool and then grade school for both Keener children and Nettie’s handprint melted into a polished bell-cutout that Harley had helped the one-year-old make for her first contribution to the tree. You and Dum-E were stationed in front of the tree, each holding an ornament and if Maggie was reading their body language correctly, arguing about where they should be hung. 

Cassie squeezed past her mother and ran over to hand Mercedes her and Nettie’s presents before hugging the other girl. “I haven’t seen you forever!” Cassie exclaimed. 

Hank Pym and Jim Paxton followed carrying a stack of boxes for everyone else. “Hope called,” Pepper told Hank. “She, James and Vision expect to finish with their mission later tonight, they should be here by the time we wake up Christmas morning.”

Hank nodded, acknowledging Pepper as he nudged past the two ‘Bots to deposit his load of gifts. Then he went to join Harley, Peter and the blueprints the two boys had spread over the coffee table. “I’m definitely seeing Cho’s influence on the programing,” Harley was saying as he wrinkled his nose. 

“Come on, Harley,” Peter scold the younger boy. “Amadeus isn’t nearly as bad as you think he is and there’s no denying that he’s, by far, the best programer between the three of us. You aren’t half as much of a pain about consulting Melati on the biological aspects.”

“Kamala vouches for Melati, even if she’s prickly,” Harley muttered. 

“FRIDAY and I vouch for Amadeus. He’s a technical asset and there’s no body better to have quarterbacking missions,” Peter said. Then he muttered, “Even if I’d rather he didn’t call me S&M on the comms.” 

“I’m no more biased about my boyfriend than you are about your crush,” FRIDAY chimed in.

“Who’s going to be joining me for Midnight Mass?” Happy asked as he and May came out of the kitchen with trays of appetizers.

Mercedes’ eyes lit up, “Does that mean we get to stay up until midnight? I wanna! Mom! Can we go with Happy tonight?”

“Will there be carols? I love Christmas Carols,” Cassie chimed in.

That night, after the kids, including Peter to his vehement protests, had been packed off to bed, the adults set to work filling stockings for the morning while they kept an eye on the news and waited for the active Avengers to join them. 

The CNN cycle included a segment on religious centers preparations for the coming war and Rome’s decision to relocate to New Earth after a painfully close vote while most of the Middle Eastern cities had opted to stay citing their historic location as being as much a part of their significance as the cities themselves and something that would be lost if they left Earth. A decision that had been repeated in most religions: Most of the major religions wanted to move a center of the their religion to the new planet but many places that were significant for what had happened on that site didn’t feel they could relocate and still preserve the sanctity of the place. 

“They're not going to come back,” Maggie said quietly. 

The others glanced over at her, pausing in what they were doing. 

“We talk about how we’ll bring the people and cities back after the war,” Maggie clarified. “But the journey’s too big a hurdle. This is setting out on the Oregon Trail or the Mayflower. Maybe a few people will turn around and come back but for most once they leave they'll be past the point of no return, they'll be committed to making New Earth work and they won't come back.”

“I know,” Hank said. “I just want to be sure it is Plymouth and not Roanoke that we're founding out there.”

**October 2019**

Hank set the last of the Reduction Staves then radioed Hope and Scott to make sure they were ready. “The Avengers made a last sweep of the city,” Hope reported. “Everyone’s out.”

“This is it.” Hank said. “I’m activating the relays.” He triggered his relays and lightning crackled, through the Marin Headlands, cutting across the SFO airport and the Bay Bridge. Then the city vanished.

Hank sat down on the hillside near Battery Spencer cradling a miniature city in his hands. As the ocean waters rushed in to fill up the hole where San Francisco City had been Hank wept.


	2. Inhuman Question

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Checking in with Daredevil as the Inhumans and the government try to make a 'right' out of many 'wrongs'.

**August 2018**

“In summary the mandatory conscription of enhanced humans as outlined in the executive order issued on August 6th of 2018 violates the the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition of involuntary servitude and it violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by singling out Enhanced Individuals for indefinite military service. The order fails to address, in any substantial way, the welfare of enhanced minors. It blatantly ignores existing child labor laws, in addition to disregarding the entire civilized world’s condemnation of the use of child soldiers.”

Later. Matt Murdock ran his fingers over the face of his watch, “Three hours and they're still deliberating? They might as well just say they aren't sure whether human rights apply to the Enhanced.”

“Or they could be going over doctor drafts and the 1981 decision to uphold women's exemption from the selective service registration based on the military's needs,” Foggy said. “You're just antsy because they make you wait in a soundproof room ever since that one judge realized you could eavesdrop on the juries.”

* * *

**January 2019**

“Crimes attributed to Enhanced Individuals, ranging from vandalism to bank robberies, continue to rise following the most recent revision of the executive order prohibiting them from leaving the planet,” a reporter said in the background. 

Melanie Amaquelin, Brian Bolt and several other Inhumans gathered in a dingy hotel room. “I say we hit Stark Towers next,” a dark haired man declared. “With some of their tech to work from I could do so much.”

A second member of the group, heavily tattooed with an elongated skull, shook his head, “We don’t want to do anything that compromises the humans’ ability to defend themselves, Max. That will only encourage them to try to hold on to us more tightly.”

“They can try,” Max smirked. “We will gather our brethren. We will meet the Ravagers price and they will take us from this miserable planet. Why shouldn’t we take whatever might aid us on our way out? So what if the humans suffer for it?” 

Brian put his hand on Max’s shoulder and shook his head.

“Oh brother,” Max sighed. “Your bleeding heart will be the death of us some day.”

“No,” Melanie said firmly. “It’s not just about taking the high road. We’ll never be able to get everyone and Kamal is right, harming their war preparations will only make them more cruel to our kin who we aren’t able to save. Stark Industries is off limit.”

“Imitators of our protests are sufficiently numerous,” Kamal said. “Their activities will camouflage our true goal, the Ravanagers’ price: The Cyttorak Ruby.”

Brian nodded and opened a guide book to National Museum of Natural History.

“Good of them to house it with the Hope Diamond,” Kamal commented. “That simple rock distracts security from their true treasure.”

* * *

Alexei leaned back against the wall of the Avengers Academy with a tired groan. 

“The Statue of Liberty is unmolested, no one got hurt when the local Immigration Office was attacked, Peter managed keep the protest on his campus nonviolent. I’d say we had a good day,” Carol told him.

“You missed the part where I came back to the Academy and had to break up a fight between the ‘It’s our responsibility to fight’ crowd and the ‘Government is stripping us of our rights’ crowd,” Alexei groaned. 

“They’re predominantly teenagers,” Carol sighed. “Between the villains and the vigilantees the Enhanced population is orders of magnitude more likely than the baseline population to take the law into their own hands when confronted with either a real or perceived wrong: We have the ability so we’re prone to using it. And how can we expect a bunch of teens to remember to use their words when their elders failed so spectacularly at that?”

Alexei’s gaze turned calculating, “Would Jim be offended if he were asked to come and address them on the Avengers’ Civil War? It seems to me that the children could use a reminder of costs when arguments are settled with fists. The school is still small enough that all the students know one another. And they are good kids, even those who perpetually feud would be disturbed at the thought of doing one another permanent harm. The thought of killing one of their classmates would, I think, be horrifying.”

“So basically you want him to show up and remind them why he’s in a wheelchair and how his best friend died?” Carol asked.

“And perhaps remind them of the other lives lost in Bucharest and Berlin, that their actions impact others beyond themselves.”

“Captain Danvers,” FRIDAY interrupted. “Report of a break in at the Smithsonian in D.C. The police aren't sure if it's an Enhanced crime but they've asked for standby support. The SHIELD team stationed in DC is light on Enhanced, politicians don't trust us and we don't trust them. But Tigra’s there lobbying against the immigration ban along with Moon Knight and Jack Russell.”

Carol blew out a frustrated breath. “Marc failed his last psych evaluation-”

“Because he was taking missions from the voices in his head,” FRIDAY interjected.

“Jack couldn't get approval to operate because of his moon problem.”

“I'd rather work with him than with Tigra,” FRIDAY said. “Morse is on the SHIELD team, didn't Greer sleep with her ex-husband?”

“That won't be an issue,” Carol said. “Forward the information to all three of them and let Bobbi know they're available if she needs them.”

“Do you ever catch yourself hoping it is an unenhanced criminal and that the police will not wish for our aid?” Alexei asked.

“I just wish it was New York and we had a half-dozen Enhanced with formal ties to the police,” Carol sighed. “Odds are the thieves will be long gone before D.C. decides if this is an Enhanced situation or not.”

* * *

**March 2019**

Foggy walked into his office at the September Foundation’s New York Headquarters and dropped heavily into his chair. Since SHRA became law he and Matt had been on staff at the Foundation with a remit be address potential civil rights infringements for the Enhanced. They could have joined the ACLU and did stay in close contact but under Pepper and Hank Pym the September Foundation had morphed from a nonprofit created by Tony Stark to provide compensation or restoration of damages caused by the Avengers into an organization dedicated to promoting an equitable relationship between between Enhanced and Baseline individuals where the rights of both were taken into consideration. The Foundation’s focus suited both Foggy and Matt and if the guys in the office next door happened to spend most of their time representing people who'd been caught in the crossfire of a superhero battle, well the reminder that the other side had it’s own points didn’t hurt anyone. Foggy loved his job but, as with anything, some days were better than others. 

Matt sat down across from him and grabbed for the phone. “Stephen?” he asked a moment later. “Anything going on in your jurisdiction?”

“You’re sure?” he pressed a few moments later.

Foggy leaned across the desk and put the call on the speaker. “Please, give him something to hit,” he said.

“The latest round of filing motions against the Enhanced Draft?” Dr. Strange asked.

“Yep, it’s fundamentally a bad law, it shouldn’t matter that we’ve got idiots protesting it by blowing up national monuments,” Foggy said. “But we keep running into ‘won’t have policy dictated by terrorists’. I swear, the Inhumans are their own worst enemy. Matt needs to blow off steam,” Foggy gave Matt a stern but pointless look, “But Daredevil can’t work with the police because some of them still believe Fisk’s frame was real and more of them believe he employs excessive force and if Matt ever registered as Daredevil we’d be too tangled up in questions about whether or not he should be disbarred for defending cases where Daredevil had been involved as a vigilante to get anything done.”

“Reaping a bit of what he sowed? Couldn’t he just hit a punching bag?” Strange asked. 

“I’m still here and I’m blind not deaf,” Matt pointed out irritably. “After today I want to get something accomplished, is that so unreasonable?”

“Have you tried knitting?” Strange asked dryly. 

“Ha, ha, ha,” Matt replied. Then he sighed, “We are making some progress, minors can’t be prevented from immigrating with their family regardless of Enhanced status, of course no one cares about that because there have already been three trips out with no Enhanced, the restraining order went through just after the seventh boat left and it’s still another month before anyone in government has to prove that they’re committed to respecting the court’s decision. Who knows if they will be given the ongoing terrorist attacks.” 

“I still don’t need you to beat anyone up today,” Strange said.

* * *

**April 2019**

Steve’s head jerked up at the muted sound of an explosion. 

“What?” Sam asked as he, Scott and Frank Payne, an undercover ACTU officer who’d turned actual criminal, looked up from their dinners.

“Explosion in the main wing,” Steve said. “Either someone breaking out or breaking in I’d bet.”

“Should we do anything?” Scott asked.

Steve looked up to stare into the cameras observing them. “If you need help, we’re here,” he said. Then he turned to the remaining two rogue Avengers. “Get ready, whatever’s going on, it could spill into this area. The guards might need help or we might need to defend ourselves.”

“I’m heading back to my cell and shutting the door,” Payne remarked. “Makes it easy for the guards to lock me in. If this ends up in some sort of riot I don’t want to be involved.”

“Not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” Scott remarked. He glanced at the others. “But maybe we should stick together?”

Steve frowned. “The other inmates are all Enhanced and they’re real criminals over where the explosion occurred.” Payne snorted at that but Steve ignored him. “What if the guards can’t handle it?” 

“Steve, without our gear, Scott and I aren’t really Enhanced,” Sam pointed out. “We’d be a liability if it came to a fight.” 

Steve was already looking around for something that he could use as a substituted for his shield. “If that’s what you think then you should stay,” he said.

“Hey Lang, sticking together sounds like a decent notion to me,” Payne remarked. “Now that it's out there that I was law enforcement I'm not real popular around here.”

“But,” Steve continued, “Odds are there are people dying out there and we can help. If that door opens, if they’re willing to take our help, I’ll be damned before I fail to give it.”

Sam and Scott looked at Steve, standing in front of the locked door staring at it as if redemption lay beyond it, holding a tabletop as a makeshift shield. They glanced at each other then moved to back him up. After a moment Payne grudgingly joined them. “Well,” he sighed. “I am Enhanced and at least with you lot there’s someone to watch my back. I can always hope no one opens the door.” And for several minutes it seemed like Payne would get his wish. 

“What’s your ability?” Steve asked as they waited. 

In answer Payne let a pair of metallic looking tentacles snake out from beneath his sleeves. “They were supposed to be a mechanical enhancement, part of my cover identity, but something went wrong and they fused to my nervous system. They hurt like hell and I can’t take them off without cutting off the arms with ‘em. Somewhere along the line my paycheck stopped seeming like adequate compensation.”

“So you went over for real,” Sam finished frowning. 

Payne shrugged. 

Then the light over the door to the wing turned from red to green. Steve threw open the door and was out it in a second. He checked the hall then waved for the others to join him. The sound of fighting drew them to the neighboring wing. They found the bodies of an inmate and three guards as they made their way to the next cell block. Sam scooped up a pair of guns as they passed the guards and offered one to Scott who shook his head. “I don’t trust myself to hit the broad side of a barn,” Scott said as he made his own inspection of the bodies and took a stun stick for himself. “Cap, give me a second to soup this baby up and I’ll be able to lock and unlock cell doors.”

“Do it,” Steve ordered. “Thanks Scott, if we can recapture, this’ll be easier.”

The other three stood guard while Scott cracked open the stun stick made some adjustments with the pocketknife he’d found on one of the dead guards. Once he’d tested it on a nearby door they continued on toward the sounds of explosions and gunfire. 

They turned a corner and saw a hulking, orangish mockery of a man leaning over a fallen guard pulling at his arm like a demented child pulling the legs off a spider. They didn’t hesitate. Steve barreled into the massive Enhanced while Sam darted in to snatch the guard away. Payne’s coils shot out a moment after Steve telegraphed his intentions and caught their opponent around the ankles so that he fell into a cell when Steve hit him. Scott pressed his stun stick against the cell’s control and the door slammed shut. 

“You good?” Steve asked as Sam leaned the guard up against a wall. 

The man nodded weakly. One of his arm hung limply at his side, clearly dislocated. “They came for the Inhumans.”

Steve’s group recaptured several more prisoners engaged in battle against one another before they reached the heart of the battle. Six inmates and two more Inhumans in street clothes were engaged in a standoff with a platoon of guards. Steve noted that several of the inmates had suppressor collars on indicating psionic powers as suppressors were useless against physical enhancements like his own. He assumed that was why the guards were able to hold out as well as they had.

Steve was quickly drawn into battle with more physically mutated of the two Inhumans, apparently the masterminds behind the prison break. The tattooed man with the elongated skull didn’t have Steve’s enhanced strength or speed but he seemed to flow around Steve’s attacks and when he struck it hurt. Payne used his coils to trap a goat-hooved prisoner and lift him off the ground. “Here!” Scott shouted pointing to an open cell, his shout drew the attention of Steve’s opponent. The tattooed Inhuman ducked under Steve’s punch and struck the super solider in the solar plexus with an open hand, knocking the air out of Steve’s lungs and dropping him with apparent ease. Then he was on Scott.

A quick blow shattered Scott’s arm forcing him to drop his stun stick. Sam and the prison guards opened fire on the tattooed man while Payne threw his captive at him. The tattooed man wove through the barrage and grabbed Scott by the arm. 

The other Inhuman in street clothes opened his mouth and said “Time!” His voice sent all those arrayed against him flying. A second word shattered the wall of the prison and the eight Inhumans left taking Scott Lang with them.

Steve struggled to his feet a few moments later. He ran toward the hole in the wall where he’d last seen Scott and the Inhumans only to be confronted by one of the guards. 

“They took Scott, we have to go after them!” Steve declared.

“Look around you!” a guard snapped. “We’ve got plenty of trouble right in front of us.”

Steve drew himself up to his full height and gave the man disapproving look. Then he caught himself, he licked his lips and started explaining as quickly as he could. “Scott didn’t escape, they took him. They specifically targeted Scott Lang, he’s not Inhuman, he’s a tech based hero. So why did they want him? And he was hurt.”

“Look, we’ll call the Avengers to go after him,” the guard sighed. “I’ll tell them what you told me but… Are you still helping us or are you going to escape to go after your friend yourself?”

Steve watched the guard’s stance shift to one of wary preparedness. Staring into his eyes it hit Steve that this man was no different from the officers that had been killed in Bucharest and Berlin more than two and half years ago. The guard was several inches shorter than Steve with dark curly hair but his expression was determined. Steve remembered dozens of Brooklyn alleys, hundreds of fights that he knew he couldn’t win but that he’d refused to run from. He remembered being the other guy, the one with nothing but his convictions and his pride to hold on to. He remember Tony throwing up his arm to shield his face, believing, correctly although it had never been Steve’s intention, that Steve would kill him. Steve swallowed back bile. “I won’t fight you,” he said.

* * *

“Could you hurry up?” Max Bolt hissed.

Melanie turned and glared at him as her hair wriggled deeper into the lock mechanism. “Some things can’t be hurried,” she sniffed. 

“I’m sure the police or the Avengers will be very understanding,” Max replied.

“I’m in,” Melanie said. 

“The Pym Reduction Staves are on the second level according to my information,” a dark haired girl in a knit cap said as she joined the other two. Quake used her powers to knock the security camera out alignment and the trio jogged down the hall and up the stairs. Melanie picked another lock to a storeroom stacked with boxes upon boxes of Reduction Staves. “We’ll need seventy of them to shrink Afterlife.” 

“Seven boxes,” Melanie reported after checking in one of the crates. 

“We should take a few extra, just in case,” Max said. Quake and Melanie both glared at him. He rolled his eyes and held up his hands in surrender. “They won’t be grateful.”

“We won’t take more than we need,” Melanie declared.

* * *

Rhodey stood in front of the Accords’ committee leaning on a cane because neither he nor his muscles were used to Harley or Peter’s prosthetics yet. “It is my professional opinion that the prison break and kidnapping of Scott Lang is directly related to break in at Pym Technologies. 

“Brian Bolt was identified among the masterminds at the prison break. As the government has refused to meet Bolt and Amaquelin’s demands it seems likely that the pair are now employing to other means to accomplish their goals. Breaking Inhuman prisoners like Amaquelin’s HYDRA affiliated younger sister out of prison. Stealing the technology they failed to gain by extortion. And kidnapping a person capable of operating that tech.”

“Alexei Shostakov is temporarily being transferred to bolster the West Coast Avengers while Ms. van Dyne has been benched due to her personal connection to Mr. Lang. However, Wasp will remain with the team in a technical capacity to aid in developing a means to trace the Pym Tech that was stolen.

“The East Coast Avengers team, under the leadership of Carol Danvers has been dispatched to follow up on leads relating to the prison break. They are investigating associates of the escapees as well as those of Bolt and Amaquelin’s group. Files recovered from several rogue segments of S.H.I.E.L.D. indicate that the city of Lai Shi in China’s Xinjian Province is an Inhuman colony and the most likely site for them to transported to New Earth. That being the case I would ask that the committee approve the Avengers entry into the sovereign territory of China to pursue this lead.”

Several hours later the committee returned with their answer. “Before we can approve the Avenger’s entry into China we need supporting evidence that Bolt and Amaquelin’s group of Inhumans are attached to the Inhuman settlement of Lai Shi.”

* * *

**August 2019**

Foggy and Matt paused for a moment on the steps of the courthouse. “Ready to go again?” Foggy asked.

“Always,” Matt replied and they walked inside.

“...While the most recent draft of the mandatory conscription of enhanced humans addresses many of the human rights questions raised by earlier drafts it still places an undue burden for the planet’s defense on one race.

“The U.S. government has encouraged its citizens to accept the Nova Empire’s offer of refuge because they recognize that there is a real danger that the Earth may be lost in the coming war. They have acknowledged that the future of the human race and the preservation of our culture may lie with those who volunteer to immigrate to New Earth. But in the same breath they deny those of Inhuman descent the right to do same. 

“While the court’s previous ruling was that the laws denying enhanced humans the right to immigrate and forcing them into military service does not discriminate because the laws do not apply to those of Inhuman descent who have not awakened their powers. However, we contest that decision on the basis that these laws do irreparable harm to the Inhuman race and to their culture. 

“The Inhuman’s leadership are, by their traditions, all awakened. They are the heart and the guardians of the Inhuman culture and none of them are permitted to leave. Furthermore, almost all individuals who are aware of their Inhuman DNA learn of it because a family member’s powers were awakened. For them to accept berths to New Earth under the current laws they would be forced to tear their families apart. The laws have been amended to allow Enhanced children to leave the planet with their baseline parents but what of children whose parents are Enhanced? Berths on the outgoing ships are preferentially awarded to individuals who can provide skills needed by the new colony and their families. Even if Enhanced parents were ready to send their children alone to a new world, unaccompanied minors have much lower odds of being awarded a berth.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Odd thought while I’m writing this chapter about Steve and his stupid phone. If he stays quietly in Wakanda and waits for Tony’s call he’s basically submitting to the two objections Team!Cap raised to the Accords in the movie: The UN telling the Avengers where they can and can’t go.... Abet in a backhanded and face-saving way (Steve doesn’t sign the Accords, he doesn’t directly let the UN call the shots… He lets TONY tell him when it’s bad enough that people are willing to invite the renegades back). 
> 
> Of course that assumes that Steve and Co don’t go all Secret Avengers. But with the movie structure having them do nothing between movies would be easier to cover than implying that there were a bunch of adventures happening off screen.


	3. Defense of Self

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cast:
> 
> Current Avengers line-up:
> 
> James Rhodes/War Machine  
> Vision   
> Hope van Dyne/Wasp  
> Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel   
> Alexei Shostakov/Ronin: Best known as Red Guardian but he and Carol were basically turned over to the Avengers after their powers became public during the confrontation with Wanda back in “Uncompromising Principles” I’ve been using Ronin instead.  
> Peter Parker/Spider-Man
> 
> Other SHRA signatories:  
> Matt Murdock (but he’s still hiding that he’s Daredevil)  
> Jessica Jones  
> Luke Cage  
> (Assume all the Defenders exist but until I catch up on Marvel TV they’re more likely to be cameos only)  
> Angela del Toro/White Tiger  
> Pepper Potts
> 
> Avengers Academy Students:  
> Terry Ward/Trauma - Fear projection/reading (from “Avengers: Initiative”, 17 in 2019)  
> Melati Kusuma/Komodo - Lizard girl, (from “Avengers: Initiative”, in her mid 20’s)  
> Abby Boylen/Cloud 9 - rides a flying cloud, sharpshooter (from “Avengers: Initiative”, 16 in 2019)  
> Nico Minoru/Sister Grimm - Magic (from “Runaways”, 17 in 2019)  
> Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel - shapeshifting (from “Ms. Marvel”, 16 in 2019)  
> David Alleyne/Prodigy - Mutant (switch to Inhuman), absorbs knowledge/skills short term, high intelligence (“Young Avengers”/”New Mutants”, 22 in 2019)   
> Harley Keener/Iron Man - starting when he turns 18 in 2020
> 
> I pulled the 2nd generation characters primarily from non-X-Men titles that I read: aka “Young Avengers”, “Avengers: Initiative” and “Runaways”. Since superheroing is a successfully regulated activity in this universe, teens with powers start training to control them as soon as they’re discovered but aren’t allowed to train for combat until 18. Mechanically enhanced teens like Harley can start training/operating once they’re eighteen. And no one’s quite figured out what to do with teens who want to be skill-based heroes yet. Kate Bishop (Young Avengers) is the unnamed teen archer Rhodes references.
> 
> Inhumans
> 
> Afterlife aside, the MCU Inhumans don’t really seem to have the completely separate society that they have in the comics so I decided to make their names less codename like.
> 
> Black Bolt = Brian Bolt  
> Medusa = Melanie Amaquelin  
> Karnak Mander-Azur = Kamal Megat  
> Maximus = Max Bolt  
> Crystal = Crystal Amaquelin

**September 2018**

Numerous reporters gathered in front of the lectern bearing the US Presidential Seal to hear his response to the legal challenges that had cropped up like weeds in the weeks following the announcement of the Enhanced Draft.

“In 2010 Tony Stark stood in front of a Senate hearing committee and bluntly refused to turn over the capability to reproduce the Iron Man technology to the U.S. government. In the years since many, many other enhanced individuals have repeated that sentiment: Their powers were their own. They did not trust any military or government with their abilities. The militaries of the world did not need that kind of power because we could count on our heroes to take care of us. This prevalent attitude among the enhanced community culminated in 2016 when Steve Rogers, Captain America, made it abundantly clear that, not only would he refuse to aid in any governmental attempts to recreate his powers, he also would not be bound to follow the orders of any government body or the United Nations. In short the Enhanced are more responsible and know better than the rest of us so we should just sit down and shut up while they get on with things. 

“The Avengers and others like them have repeatedly and conclusively demonstrated the difference in powers between the Enhanced and a standard military unit.” The president gestured to a screen showing confrontations between military forces and the Hulk on several occasions including Culver University, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes in Bucharest and Berlin as well as dozens of confrontations between police and Enhanced criminals. “Normal military troops cannot, they simply cannot, go up against Enhanced forces and expect anything other than disaster. 

“In 2012 Thor Odinson, first Prince of Asgard informed the people of Earth that experiments with the alien artifact known as the Tesseract had signaled to the greater universe that ‘Earth was ready for a higher form of war’. At that same time the Earth was invaded by an alien race, the Chitauri, while they were turned back and the portal that they arrived through was closed, Tony Stark reported seeing a massive armada waiting to attack the Earth. It was his belief that the Invasion of 2012 was only the first attack on Earth. 

“Tony Stark was right, the armada he saw on the other side of the portal in 2012 is now visible to Earth’s telescopes. In another year it will be within our solar system. The Enhanced Draft is a necessary measure to protect the continued existence of the planet Earth. And it is necessary as a direct result of the actions and attitudes of the Enhanced. 

“A force fifty times larger than the one the Avengers drove back in 2012 will be at our doorstep in one more year. The Earth’s military forces have no hope of defeating it. The Avengers and others like them have repeatedly and emphatically declared that military and government forces cannot be trusted with the sort of powers they possess. They have assured us, repeatedly, that we could count on them to be there when we needed them. Well that day is now. They assumed responsibility for the defense of the planet every time they refused, obstructed or sabotaged governmental attempts to develop powers equal to theirs. 

“Now, none of us have a choice. Thanks to their efforts we can’t fight without them, so they must fight for us. The mandatory Enhanced Draft is nothing more than the natural consequences of the Enhanced’s careful hoarding of their powers.”

Several weeks later much the same scene was repeated although this time it was a White House spokesman rather than the president himself facing the press. “Naturally the Enhanced Draft will adhere to all existing statutes regarding minors. While they were not explicitly excluded from the Executive Order issued on August 6th the administration believed it would be understood that the order would not supersede existing laws regarding the treatment of minors.”

* * *

**March 2019**

As Terry Ward flipped through his mail one return address jumped out at him. Quickly he shoved the letter in his pocket and hurried back to his dorm room, head down, shoulders hunched defensively. 

Once he was alone he took the letter out and just stared at it. The return address was from the Immigration Office. He’d submitted his application to join the evacuation twelve hours after the government had clarified that minors weren’t included in the prohibition on Enhanced leaving Earth. The way it had been stated, the intent was to avoid breaking up families but no one ever said that a minor couldn’t go on their own. Terry was seventeen and desperately hoped that he’d be gone before that loophole closed for him. 

The letter Terry held in his hands could be his ticket out or it could be a rejection of his application. Terry stood there in the center of his room crumpling the letter further between his hands. Finally he slid his finger under the flap, pulled the letter out and started reading.

...A month, he had a month to get ready to leave the planet forever. There had been a lone berth empty on the next ship so he hadn’t had to compete against people leaving with their families. A month to leave everything he’d ever known behind. 

Terry glanced around his room a little bit wildly. With Dr. Pym’s technology to shrink luggage pets were about the only thing people couldn’t bring with them. On the News he’d seen people pull up to the Nova Empire docking platforms with whole moving vans. But having too much baggage wasn’t really a worry in Terry’s case. 

He hadn’t been home since the night his powers went out of control and he’d been arrested. His mother had moved rather than continue facing neighbors whose children had died that night. The only time Terry had spoken with her since that night was when he’d called to ask her to sign the consent form that came with his application to immigrate. She hadn’t thought twice before agreeing to sign, only saying, “Well, I wasn’t planning on letting those aliens force me out of my home.” Terry had replied, “And I’m hoping I can make a home if I can get the hell away from here.” But now that he was going Terry wondered if his mom would pack up some of his room if he asked and if she hadn’t thrown his stuff out already. 

Terry pulled out his suitcase and started packing his summer clothes then he paused. “Everyone’s going to hate me.”

Hours later a knock on his door startled Terry out of his thoughts. “Hey, you alright in there?” a girl called through the door. “You weren’t at dinner, or lunch.”

Terry hesitated briefly then opened the door to admit a girl with dyed black hair, pale make-up and a lace skirt with a dramatically uneven hem. Silently he handed her the letter. “So Nico… Am I traitor or a coward?”

Nico Minoru reached over and hugged him, “Neither, you’re just doing what’s right for you. I’ll miss you but I’m glad you got the chance to go.” She looked around at Terry’s spartan dorm room. “I’m going to talk to some of the other sensible people around here, we’ll scare up some sort of care package to send you off with.”

* * *

**April 2019**

Scott curled up in a corner of the bare concrete cell, rubbing his broken arm and trying to break through the fog in his mind. He remembered a dark haired Inhuman coming into the cell that morning shortly after he'd finished his MRE breakfast. Now his arm and head were competing throbbing pains, he felt exhausted and there was a blur of activity that represented the day. The only thing he clearly remembered was the one Inhuman, Max he thought, looming over him.

The door opened and a blonde woman Scott vaguely remembered from the prison break came in with a tray of food. She took one look at Scott's swollen, bruised arm spun around on her heel and stomped out. Her raised voice drifted back into the room, “Max! What the hell! Why hasn't anyone treated his injuries?”

“When he's under my control he doesn't care,” a man said carelessly, his voice growing more distant as he spoke.

Scott stared at the open door. Then, clutching his broken arm to his side, he rolled to his feet and staggered out. Every step he took jarred his arm sending flashes of white across his vision. At the door he turned in the opposite direction from the way the blonde had gone.

The door next to Scott’s clearly led to another cell. He let go of his broken arm with a groan and used his good hand to slide open the tray slot. “Hey,” he whispered as he knelt to peer through the slot. “Wanna join my escape?”

The girl inside the room looked young, fifteen or sixteen, “Really? You're helping me?” she asked hopefully.

“Course,” Scott said. “Just let me see about this lock. I'm pretty good with locks-”

“Sorry, but no,” Skye said coming up behind him. She took him by his good arm and started steering him back to the cell.

Scott tried to put up a fight but the jolt to his arm all but caused him to blackout and Skye ended up half carrying him back to his cell. “We could be nicer if you'd cooperate,” she said.

“Look um…”

“Call me Quake.”

“Sure, Quake, I'm not going to help the bad guys steal Hank’s tech.”

“We're not the bad guys,” the blonde said tearfully as she returned with an armful of medical supplies.

“Crystal, you left the door open,” Quake sighed.

“Sorry, I- His arm- I thought-”

“If Max can force him to ignore his injury to work we have to assume he can force himself to ignore it to try to escape,” Quake said.

“We're not the bad guys,” Crystal reiterated as she set to splitting Scott's arm. He shrieked in agony as she set the days old break. “We just want to leave, to be left alone.”

“Tell it to the kidnap victim next door,” Scott snapped.

Crystal shook her head violently, “We didn't kidnap Kamala!”

Scott snorted.

“We really didn't,” Quake said. “Her mother didn’t want the government forcing her to fight in a war. Kamala thinks she wants to be a hero but she's just a kid and her mom doesn’t want her co-opted into this.”

“So you have, what? A permission slip for keeping her prisoner?” Scott scoffed.

“Would you let your daughter fight, Mr Lang?” Quake asked. “Even if she said she wanted to? She's what? Ten or Eleven now? Only a few years younger than Kamala.”

“Humans locked me up six years ago,” Crystal said. “They made me have my baby in prison and then they took her away and I never saw her until Quake brought her to us.” She glanced away, “I would have seen to your arm the first day we got here but I hadn’t seen my daughter since she was born.”

“Wait! What?” Scott exclaimed. “SHRA and the Accords didn't even exist in 2013.”

“They said my boyfriend was HYDRA,” Crystal said. “I didn't know, I thought he just didn't want his sister knowing about us! Then they said my powers were too dangerous and they couldn't let me go.”

“Governments have been trying to control the Enhanced long before Sokovia’s destruction Mr. Lang,” Quake said.

“But isn't that supposed to be the good thing about the Accords?” Scott asked. “Getting that sort of crap out of the shadows? I mean, shady governments telling the Avengers who needs saving, we've gotta agree to disagree about whether or not there's any other kind of government. But a bunch of shady governments all keeping their eyes on one another to keep stuff like that,” he nodded at Crystal, “from going unnoticed? I can pretty much get behind that, once I thought it through.”

“It’s complicated,” Quake said. Which was the quick way of saying that Pietro Maximoff hadn’t been half as sneaky as he probably thought he had been about his secret girlfriend. HYDRA had known what their little lab rat was up to and when the relationship turned fruitful they notified their cohorts in S.H.I.E.L.D., most likely planning to keep a closer eye the pregnancy by getting Crystal’s unborn baby on the Index. But no one had realized that Crystal had powers of her own or that her ingrained fear of discovery would result in her panicking and killing three S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents as soon as they identified themselves. Crystal’s baby had been, to HYDRA, disappointingly normal in spite of having two Enhanced parents and had been quietly dumped in the foster care system. HYDRA was discovered in S.H.I.E.L.D. ACTU rose to fill the gap left by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s fall. The Accords and SRHA were passed and policies around Enhanced that ACTU had inherited from S.H.I.E.L.D. came under review. But whatever nefarious designs HYDRA might have had on Crystal and her unborn child the fact remained that she’d killed three government agents for nothing more than identifying themselves. And so she’d been transferred from one of several secret facilities S.H.I.E.L.D. used to lock up Enhanced who were deemed too dangerous to the new, UN inspected, supermax prison in Nevada and there she’d stayed until the prison break.

“You’re still kidnappers from what I’ve seen,” Scott replied with a shrug.

“And I can still make you do what we need,” Max announced with a nasty smile as he leaned against the door jam. “What a human like you thinks is irrelevant.”

* * *

After Scott’s injuries had been treated Skye excused herself. Since they’d arrived she’d made a regular practice of wandering around Afterlife, looking at the places she remembered from her earlier stay, examining the damages from the battle Jiaying had staged and those from the years of abandonment. It was an easy excuse for occasionally wandering off on her own. 

Once she’d garnered some privacy Skye slipped an earpiece in and dialed a number on her phone. “How’s the weather in China?” Coulson asked, picking up on the second ring.

“Menacing with a hundred percent probability of coercion,” Skye replied. “Given his past alliances I thought Lang would be falling over himself to help the others get away from the Big Brother.”

“People change,” Coulson said, his tone apologetic. “That aside?”

“There are about two hundred and fifty people of Inhuman descent from all over the globe currently at Afterlife,” Skye reported. “Maybe a third who have not undergone Terrigenesis. 

“When Jiaying scattered the former colony a good portion of them went right on locating potentials. They’ve also been making contact with the newly empowered and helping them stay off the radar. Some of those without powers already have official berths on the ships out.”

“We’ve had our suspicions that potential Inhumans might have made up a fairly high percentage of the early New Earth immigrants,” Coulson remarked. 

“Yeah,” Skye confirmed. “From what I hear pretty much everyone with ties to Afterlife has been volunteering to leave. They’ve felt alienated for a long time, fighting for Earth’s future doesn’t hold much appeal. The ones here are just helping those with powers get off planet and they’re doing the same thing everyone else on the planet is: Bringing parts of their culture that they want saved, a Diviner included, to one of the fifty cities. With what we stole will one of the other cities have to stay behind?”

“Fifty’s such a nice even number don’t you think?” Coulson remarked. “The UN always knew picking the cities and organizing their removal to New Earth was going to be an ordeal. So they chose a number. Pym made nearly three hundred extra Reduction Staves, replacements for defective ones, extras to deal with unexpected terrain variation, etcetera. The Staves needed to move a small place like Afterlife won’t be missed. How about those less enthusiastic to be included in the Inhuman population?” 

“Bolt and Amaquelin are determined not to leave any Inhuman at the mercy of a human government,” Skye signed. “They ‘rescued’ James and Shockley along with the other incarcerated Inhumans but I’d guess those two would rather be in government custody if it’s a choice between that and here. We’ve also got maybe two dozen kids who were registered by various governments and were getting official training to use their powers. They’ve all got at least one parent who wants them out of the fighting but a lot of them aren’t so keen on the idea of leaving.”

“At least one parent?” Coulson groaned, “So we’re in custodial kidnapping territory, at the least. Joy.”

“We thought this would be a quick fix,” Skye mourned. “The law was a bad one but no one wanted to back down after Mount Rushmore. So we step in and help them get what they want under the table, I mean their demands weren’t really that unreasonable, then with the terrorist pressures off the legal challenges would finally get somewhere and…” Skye sighed. “But this is a mess. Forcing people to go isn’t any better than forcing them to stay. I’m worried about Lang, Max Bolt is a psychopath and we’re letting him tromp all over Lang’s brain. I’m at the point of saying the only good thing to come out of this is getting Luna back to her mom. I really don’t think Crystal would have freaked out like she did if she hadn’t been indoctrinated to think humans are all out to get her. She didn’t deserve what happened to her.”

“Neither did the people she killed,” Coulson remarked. “Luna… She’s what five? Same age as Lang’s daughter was when he first got himself thrown in jail. See if you can get her in a room with him, get him thinking about keeping Crystal and her kid together. The sooner they get off the planet the better, getting his cooperation would be big step in the right direction… Or we could call it a bad business. Tip off the Avengers, try to cut losses.” 

“No,” Skye sighed after several minutes. “Max Bolt is a psychotic asshole, Brian and Melanie mean well, by the Inhumans at least and Kamal’s style of pragmatic is a little creepy but most of the people here are just people, it's not their fault that their leaders are zealots.”

“When your society's primary virtue is secrecy it encourages or at least enables, a certain degree of extremism in your leaders.”

“People in glass houses Phil,” Skye replied.

“Should I take that to mean you’re still in? Reservations aside?”

“I’m still in,” Skye said. “I can’t help but think this is the best thing for them: A new planet, a new start.”

“They still plan on sharing a planet with humanity,” Coulson pointed out.

“Only so those who left with the Nova Ships can rejoin the colony,” Skye replied. “But I gather the fifty cities are planning on putting down roots fairly close together for mutual defense. It’s a whole world, the humans and Inhumans won’t even be sharing a continent for generations. Hopefully by the time they need to co-exist again we’ll be less suspicious of each other.”

* * *

Captain Carol Danvers sat in her office at the Avenger’s Academy and listened gravely to the heavy set man standing in her office wringing his hands. “I thought perhaps that Kamala had returned to your school,” Mr. Khan told her. “She was very unhappy to leave but with everything that has been going on I wanted her close to home.”

“No, she hasn’t been at the school since you withdrew her,” Danvers said. “Hold on a moment.” She reached over and hit the intercom button. “Ms. Boylen, please report to the main office immediately.” 

Several minutes later girl with light brown hair riding on a cloud zipped by the window then they heard someone running in the hall and the same girl burst into the office. “You wanted me Captain?” she exclaimed breathlessly.

“Take a moment to breath, Abby,” Danvers said. 

The girl nodded. 

“Abby, this Kamala’s father, Mr. Yusuf Khan. Mr. Khan, Abby was your daughter’s roommate here at school,” Danvers performed introductions. “Now Abby, this is very important. Have you heard from Kamala since she left school? Any friends she might have gone to visit…”

Abby’s mouth gaped open, “Oh my gosh, did Kamala run away?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Danvers replied seriously. “Because the other possibility is that she’s been kidnapped and if that’s the case we need to go after her right now.” 

Abby shook her head violently. “No, Kamala though being pulled out of school was seriously uncool-” She glanced over at Mr. Khan apologetically, “Sorry. But she never said anything about running away. We were calling each other every few days until about a week ago. When Kamala stopped talking to me I thought, maybe, she was mad because Colonel Rhodes got the rules changed and now we get to learn more combat stuff, like my riflery class, even if we can’t join a team until we’re eighteen.” 

Mr. Khan’s mouth turned down at that.

“This is voluntary,” Danvers said quietly. “When the attacks start it’s going to be hard to keep the ones that want to fight out of it, regardless of their age. We’re still trying to keep them out of combat until they’re adults but under the circumstances it seemed better to offer the training than not.” She turned to Abby, “Thank you, you can go.”

“Do you think Kamala got kidnapped?” Abby asked tremulously. “Like by those horrible Watchdog people or something?”

“I hope not but we’ll find her,” Danvers replied, putting a comforting hand on the girl’s shoulders as she showed her out. “Mr. Khan, Kamala didn’t come back here. So can you think of anywhere else she might have gone?”

“I-” he hesitated. “Representatives of an Inhuman group came to talk to us about Kamala, about her ancestry and how she came by her powers. I wasn’t impressed by them and I thought Kamala felt the same but perhaps I was wrong.”

“The terrorists,” Danvers groaned.

“They were not the pair from that video,” Mr. Khan said cautiously. “But their message was not unrelated.”

* * *

**September 2019**

“I’m registered as Enhanced but when I attempted to follow the latest rendition of the Enhanced Draft Law my application was rejected because I’m also legally blind,” Matt explained to a group of reports that were waiting outside of the courthouse as he and Foggy filed charges against yet another revision of the Enhanced Draft. “Enhanced is a blanket term. For myself I could argue, I could demonstrate, that I’m as capable as any sighted person in hand-to-hand combat but I would guess that at least forty percent of the people in listening to me hold a valid driver’s licence. Guess what, despite not being Enhanced, forty percent of you are capable of doing something I can’t. 

“Being ‘Enhanced’ does not automatically confer a combat ability in excess of armed, trained military personnel. Still the Enhanced Draft operates under the assumption that every Enhanced Individual is more capable of combat than the average citizen could be if given military training and that is simply not true. Not every power has a combat application, not every person should be in combat. The military does not consider me physically capable of operating a vehicle despite being Enhanced, I don’t dispute that. 

“There are numerous examples of individuals who have been enhanced via variants of the Super Soldier Serum, deliberately enhanced for the specific purpose of heightened combat abilities… And yet many of them are, as a direct result of those enhancements, no longer mentally capable of operating as a member of the US military. Harlem might recall Captain Emil Blonsky of the British Armed Forces. He was a highly decorated military man prior to undergoing experiments designed to enhance his combat abilities. After those treatments he became an abomination, responsible for the senseless loss of hundreds of lives and the destruction of entire blocks of their city. We could put him back in the military, point him at the enemy and hope he remembers how or even cares to differentiate friend from foe… Or we could acknowledge that despite his power, in fact because of the Enhancements he underwent, Emil Blonsky is completely unfit for military service. The Enhanced Draft, as currently written, assumes that every Enhanced can and should serve in a combat capacity. It is an unrealistic and vastly overbroad law.” 

“Not to mention that it is a pointless exercise in alienating the very people the Enhanced Draft claims it needs,” Matt continued. “If the current administration had bothered to check their facts before pushing their new law though they might have noticed that we already have a quite functional selective service system, have for over a hundred years now. As for the argument that the Enhanced are uniquely necessary for this war? Ninety percent of the graduates of the Yinsen Academy for Enhanced Humans who have powers suited for combat have elected to join teams like the Avengers once they turned eighteen and completed combat training. So what exactly is being gained with the Enhanced Draft? Individuals with powers unsuited for combat. A hand full of people who have the physical capability to be soldiers but not the mentality. And resentment. Because just like the rest of you, we don’t like being forced into things.

“This law was founded in fear and mistrust. It breeds estrangement and discord. We’ve opposed the last three versions of the Enhanced Draft and we’ll go on opposing any new versions that continue to view Enhanced as assets for the government to use rather than as citizens of this country.”


	4. (Almost) Everyone Means Well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I'm convinced that the next chapter is the last one. At least the big fight's out of the way now, that was a bear to write.

**May 2019**

Lightning sparked between the Reduction Staves, going wild across the too large gap where they hadn’t finished setting up and then Afterlife was gone. Five-eighths of the city’s former circumference was cut in a perfect semi-circle but the last stretch of ground looked as if a pack of wild dogs had mauled it. 

“Move! Move! Move!” The captain of the Ravagers shipped waved the milling Inhumans toward his cargo hold. “Wheels up in five minutes, I leave anyone not on board. You didn’t pay us for a battle.”

* * *

**A Few Days Earlier**

“You suspect these Inhumans terrorists are kidnapping young Enhanced?” the Chinese member of the Accords Committee asked sharply.

“Representatives of an Inhuman group came to Yusuf and Muneeba Khan claiming that they could get around the Enhanced Draft Laws and transport her to New Earth. Mrs. Khan has admitted that she indicated to them that she would talk her husband and daughter around. Three days later Kamala was missing, she has not contacted any of her friends in over a week. David Alleyne, an Academy graduate disappeared from his college classes within days of Kamala’s disappearance, his parents have also admitted to being contacted and were discussing the offer when he vanished.” Rhodes paused significantly, “Luna Amaquelin, the three-year-old niece of Melanie Amaquelin, the daughter of Crystal Amaquelin, who was broke out of prison by Brian Bolt and an unidentified accomplice- Luna vanished from her foster parents home two weeks before the others. I think we have to consider it a possibility that Bolt and Amaquelin’s terrorist group is kidnapping young Inhumans.” Colonel Rhodes answered.

“You have leave to investigate Lai Shi,” the Chinese representative said.

Rhodes’ jaw dropped.

“You aren’t the only one with missing children to find.”

* * *

Max Bolt huffed with annoyance when Scott, deeply under his thrall, stepped into a gopher hole and fell, his leg snapping audibly. 

“Get up!” Max ordered. 

Scott tried to pull himself to his feet but his leg collapsed under him, the one of bones ripped through the skin. 

Max’s frowned at the sight of blood spurting from around the broken shaft of bone. “Can’t you do anything right?” he demanded as he grabbed a stick and the sling off Scott’s arm. Max quickly tied the cloth above the wound then used the stick to tighten it until the bleeding had stopped. Max nodded in satisfaction. “Can’t have you bleeding out before we’re done,” he said. Then he grabbed Scott under the arm and dragged him along to the next Reduction Stave. “Program it.” he ordered.

Max watched intently as Scott mechanically started tinkering with the Stave, absorbing everything he could about how the technology worked. Ignoring Scott’s injury, Max kept at it him at it for hours. They kept slowly extending the line of stakes defining Afterlife’s perimeter until the sun set. Only then did Max drag Scott back toward the center of the town.

Crystal gasped when she saw Max roughly hauling Scott along, leaving drops of blood in their wake. “What is wrong with you!” she exclaimed. “Melanie! Quake! Someone help! Lang’s been hurt.”

Brian Bolt appeared, he frowned sternly at Max and Scott. Under Brian’s disapproving look, Max let Scott drop, he crossed his arms over his chest and watched sulkily as Brian gently scooped Scott up and started carrying him. 

“Brian!” Crystal exclaimed with an uncertain smile. “We- we should take him back to the medical center. I don’t know what Max was thinking dragging him around like that. Just look at all the dirt in the wound. It’ll be a miracle if it doesn’t get infected.”

They had only just reached the medical center when Max’s powers wore off. For a moment a look of bewilderment crossed Scott’s face then he started sucking in great gasping breaths as he stared at his mangled leg in horror. 

“It’s okay, it’s going to be okay,” Crystal cooed helplessly. “I’ll make it better.”

Brian sat Scott down on one of the bed and left. By the time he returned with Kamal, Scott was screaming incoherently and trying to fight Crystal off while she did her best to keep him from doing himself further injury. Brian gave a soundless sigh then took over holding Scott down. 

Kamal and Crystal worked quickly, they set Scott’s leg, stitched the wound closed and then released the tourniquet. Scott hyperventilated and passed out while they worked. 

“Well, that’s done,” Kamal said. “All of us crowding around won’t help him remain calm when he awakens. I have the mass to hold him down if it comes to that and I can tell him what’s happened without knocking the building down, therefore you two should leave.”

Several minutes later Scott woke up. Pale and shaky, he looked down at the bandages covering his leg. “I can’t feel my toes,” he said.

“Tourniquet paralysis syndrome can be temporary,” Kamal replied. “We don’t- Very few of us want to be cruel to you. If you would simply cooperate you could save yourself much anguish.”

Scott decided not to think about the unspoken implication that the paralysis could also be permanent. “If I just helped you steal Hank’s tech? Who do you think I am? Hank was the only person willing to give me a second chance and you think I’ll just turn on him because you threaten me?” Scott demanded.

Kamal shrugged, “Your defiance is meaningless, Max Bolt can make you help with or without your cooperation. The only thing your capitulation changes is the damage you take in the process. And I did study you Mr. Lang, you are a person who does not let laws stand in the way of doing what is right. Yes, we are stealing Pym’s technology but it is our right to preserve ourselves and our culture. We are only taking what should, rightfully, have been ours but was denied to us.”

Scott glanced from his arm, broken several days earlier when they'd taken him from prison, to his newly broken leg. “And if I get in the way of you getting what is rightfully yours whatever happens to me is on my head I guess.”

Kamal nodded.

“Mount Rushmore, acceptable collateral damage?”

“It is just rock, we were careful to avoid harming any people.”

“The kids you’re holding prisoner, it’s for their own good. You’re really looking out for their best interests. If they don’t get that… Well, you have to force them to accept the help you’re offering. It’s for their own good.”

“True.”

“You had to take matters into your own hands because, let me guess, governments have agendas. The only safe hands are your own? Something like that?”

“You understand,” Kamal replied.

“Yeah, I understand just how much it sucks to be one of the people on the other side of that,” Scott groaned looking at his leg again. ”Karma’s a bitch but I probably deserve this for my part in what happened to Rhodes and Stark. Nothing I can do to stop your lot’s major asshole from screwing with my head?”

“No, nothing.” Kamal said. “You are not betraying your mentor, you simply have no choice.”

Scott signed and sort of slumped down on the treatment bed. “You don’t really know that my leg’s going to be okay ever again do you?” he said. Kamal didn’t reply. “Could I be alone?” Scott asked. “I mean you guys kidnapped me, you’re not really a great comfort to have around.”

“If that is what you would like,” Kamal said. As he turned to pick up a pair of handcuffs Scott palmed the bloody needle that had been used to stitch him up. Once Kamal left Scott picked the locks on the handcuffs with the needle then quickly searched the room, using a rolling stool to get around. He secreted various medical implements that could double as a burglar's kit on his person then he put the handcuffs back on.

And then Scott employed the patience needed for success as a burglar. He ate the dinner Crystal brought him, being sure to give her miserable puppy-ish looks when she brought the tray and took it away again. As the hour grew late Brian Bolt reappeared along with Quake, the pair of them transported Scott back to his cell. 

Scott sat on his cot and listened carefully as the compound settled in for the night. He gave it another hour after everything had become quiet. ‘At least the paralysis keeps my leg from hurting,’ he thought as he dragged himself over to the door and picked the lock. Then he used the wall as a crutch as he limped to the next cell where he’d seen the girl and opened that door as well. “Psst! Wanna blow this pop stand?” he called softly, hoping she had better sense than to scream. 

“Do I ever!” the girl whispered back. She rolled off her bunk and scurrying over. “I’m Kamala Khan, second year academy student. Fully certified and in control of my powers and I’ve taken a bunch of theoretical classes about national and international mission protocols, government, diplomacy-” 

“I’m Scott,” Scott interrupted, deciding to avoid potential issues she might have with Ant-Man, Scott Lang or anyone who’d fought against the Accords she seem happy enough to be living under. He nodded toward the collar on Kamala’s neck, “Power suppressor?”

Kamala’s eyes lit up. She hurried over and swept her hair aside to show him the lock. Scott made short work of it. “Now let’s get everyone else,” Scott said. “If you don’t mind loaning me a shoulder to lean on.”

“Oh! Oh! You’re hurt! I didn’t even notice! I should have- Captain Marvel is going to be soooo disappointed in me!” Kamala exclaimed in a rush.

Scott felt himself smiling at her enthusiasm in spite of the throbbing in his arm and numbness in his leg. “Hey, who’s rescuing who here?” he whispered. “Don’t worry about it.”

They made their way from cell to cell, freeing the other prisoners.

“David!” Kamala squealed when the door to the fifth cell opened, she flung herself into the arms of the older boy. “What are you doing here! I haven’t seen you since you graduated!”

David, a serious looking black boy with square frame glasses, patted Kamala on the back and smiled weakly. “Getting kidnapped apparently.” Then he noticed Scott and his eyes sharpened, “You’re-” 

“A fellow kidnap victim who’d like to get all of us out of here before this little escape gets noticed. We’re lucky our captures apparently haven’t had much practice at this… Oh and I pick locks if you want to get rid of that collar,” Scott said.

David grimaced but acquiesced. 

“So you’re a graduate from the superhero school, how’s that work?” Scott asked to distract himself from the increasing discomfort as he forced the fingers on his broken arm to function.

“I’m not a superhero,” David replied shortly. “I registered with SHRA, spent a year making sure my powers were under control. Then I re-applied to college and got on with my life. At least until these creeps grabbed me.” His collar came off. “You got any more lock picks?”

“They taught you to pick locks? Was it as superhero school or college?” Scott asked. “I learned at college, kept locking myself out of my dorm room and got tired of streaking across campus in just a towel to get the spare, so I learned to open the door without one.”

David rolled his eyes, “Neither. You’ve got a skill? I can borrow it, for a few hours anyway. That’s how my powers work.”

“Less work for me,” Scott shrugged.

Kamala leaned over and whispered to David, “Why are you being so rude? He’s rescuing us.”

“He’s one of them,” David replied with a dark look at Scott. “The one that turns into a giant. Didn’t you recognize him?”

Kamala’s eyes widened. “Still, he’s helping us.”

“Just don’t trust him,” David warned. “Who knows what sort of stupid shit he’s going to pull.”

Kamala nodded but looked sad. “I don’t think he’s a bad person.” She turned back to Scott, “I shape shift,” she volunteered.

* * *

“Colonel, I have detected Pym Particles forming a perimeter around the city and two hundred and sixty-three life signs,” Vision reported. “The city appears- I believe, ‘like a kicked anthill’ would be an appropriate colloquialism to employ.” 

“Fuck,” Rhodes swore. Back on the quinjet he glanced over his shoulder at the rest of his team, Spider-Man, Komodo and FRIDAY if he gave her leave to use the Quinjet’s weaponry. 

Tony had put prohibitions on using weapons in FRIDAY’s code, telling her that she was too young to be allowed access to guns. Rhodes had chosen to take Tony at his word and had removed them as FRIDAY matured. It wasn’t a sure thing, if there was anyone who’d lie to an AI to spare their feelings it was Tony Stark, maybe Ultron had scared Tony out of trusting his AI’s. Still Rhodes remembered a night a couple of months after Sokovia and a very, very drunk Tony insisting that Ultron wasn’t evil, he’d just been given too much information, too much power and too much freedom without the time or guidance to process it properly. Rhodes liked to think that FRIDAY was growing up well, a credit to her creator and predecessor as well as proof that Ultron was an anomaly. 

“This was supposed to be an information gathering mission,” Rhodes said, half to himself.

“Colonel, my scans found an alien ship,” FRIDAY reported. “Analysis indicates sufficient similarity to the Guardians’ Milano to assume a common origin.”

“FRI, call in reinforcements,” Rhodes said quietly. “The committee, the Chinese, Russian and Indian governments. Contact Carol’s team and break out the Legion. Get me ETA’s on everyone.”

“On it sir,” FRIDAY replied.

“You listening Viz?” Rhodes asked.

“I am.”

“Okay folks, we’ve got several hundred possible hostile Enhanced down there. If they’re not set to jump planet they’re damned close. We might be seeing an escape attempt by our kids. Help is several hours out at best,” Rhodes summed up the situation. “This is not the mission you signed on for.” 

“Allenye was my teammate at the Academy,” Komodo stated. 

“I am not opposed to taking some risks to ascertain if the commotion is indeed caused by my former students,” Vision added.

“I’m not taking any real risks here, Colonel-man,” FRIDAY volunteered.

Peter looked around the group, “The kids involved might be minors- well not David but mostly! Still they’re old enough that they should have some say in their lives. Furthermore, from what we’ve heard, this group willing to take parents being uneasy about the draft as carte blanche to drag people off. They’ve basically decided that someone having Inhuman genes makes them part of their nation? Cult? Bolt and Amaquelin have decided they represent their people but I don’t know how they’ve legitimized that. I mean it's like David or Kamala would ever agree to follow a bunch of terrorists.” He took a deep breathe, “It’d be easier if we didn’t all think the law they’re opposing is a shitty law, but what they’re doing is wrong. They’re going around blowing things up and forcing their idea of right on other people. And we're against junk like that.

“I know there’s a lot of time pressure and it’s frustrating to do things through the system. I know DD and Foggy are having to chip away at the whole stupid mess little by little, getting the most egregious parts dismantled first and winning small concessions. But what Bolt and Amaquelin’ group are doing? It’s nothing but a rallying point for the people who have a problem with the Enhanced. Maybe this group gets what they want through violence but they’re making it harder for everyone who wants to change things legally. I’m definitely in, they need to be stopped.”

“Okay,” Rhodes said. “Our first priority is the safety of the captives…”

* * *

Scott reached for the suppressor collar on the last of the prisoners he'd freed, a ten year old girl, but she covered the lock with her hands exclaiming, “Nem felelt meg a vizsgálat!”

“Sweetie, I just want to get you out of that nasty thing,” Scott said with a reassuring smile.

“She knows,” David said, his powers allowing him to temporarily speak the languages of everyone around him. “She says she hasn’t passed her test yet.” 

To Scott’s shock he saw four of the kids from David’s row of cells were also still wearing collars. Scott remembered the Raft, Sam’s and particularly Clint’s outrage when Wanda had been collared… Of course, after it turned out she’d been using her powers on them they hadn’t said much about Vision taking her power from her. But back on the Raft they'd been livid. He remembered how they’d all felt for Terry, afraid to use his powers. But here, while some of the kids were shooting sympathetic looks at their collared peers, there was no outrage, not even any surprise. “You do know we’re totally outnumbered and everyone on the other side has powers, right?” Scott asked.

David rolled his eyes, “I have no idea how things worked under Steve Rogers’ leadership but pre-teens are noncombatants in any mission I’m on. Beyond that, do you seriously think an uncontrolled release of powers from a scared little kid is likely to make things better for us?” David nodded toward the one adult trailing after him, “This is JT James, he says he lived here under an earlier Inhuman Regime.” 

James, who was carrying what looked like a high tech jar under one arm, looked Scott over curiously. “Never could figure out why you lot needed your own wing,” he remarked. “Weren’t like assholes who thought they were above the law were in short supply in general population. Well hero, we’re a good weeks’ walk from the nearest neighbors and that’s me walking not these ankle-biters. I suppose you’ve got a plan?”

Scott looked around a little desperately, “Um, can anyone teleport? Or anything like that?” 

“We’ve got two fliers,” David said with a nod toward a thirteen-year-old boy with wings and an even younger kid with no obvious signs of Enhancement. “Jay here isn’t really a long distance kind of guy but he can beat us ground bound. Ki-nam doesn’t have the same metabolic limits but I’d rather they stuck together. As soon as we see an opening they’re going to take off and try to get help. 

“The rest of us can try to get out of the city. If they were planning on holding us here indefinitely I’d say we should try to get the fliers out then let everyone else get recaptured so we have food and shelter while we wait to be rescued but when they could drag us off planet at any moment that changes things. We’ll run if we can, try to hole up somewhere in the hills and hold out there.” David sighed, “It’s not much of a plan but I’m sick of sitting around here getting lectured about how we’re the chosen ones and humans are all out to get us.” He took a deep breath, “It’s my judgement call that I’d rather risk depending on our wilderness survival skills than chance these guys leaving before help comes. If anyone else’s analysis says it’s better to sit tight and wait for help, now’s the time to let us know.” David stopped and quickly repeated himself in Chinese, Hungarian, Spanish and Russian.

The kids traded looks among themselves, unconsciously drawing closer together. In just a few moments everyone had made up their mind to go.

Scott raised his hand, “I have an idea.” He glanced at Kamala, “You said you’re a shapeshifter, have you ever seen the big quiet guy?”

Kamala nodded. “Oh yeah, I can scout. No one questions him.”

“Because they’d probably get knocked through a wall if he answered,” Scott replied. “And even if they don’t buy him taking all us prisoners for a walk seeing him with us might confuse them long enough for us to get in a cheap shot.”

“Oooh, fighting dirty. Not what I expected from a hero,” James said. He hefted the jar a bit, “I’ve got my own distraction tactic here. Don’t you worry yourselves about it. I’ll know when to put it in play.”

David and another of the larger kids offered themselves as crutches for Scott while Kamala shifted into Brian Bolt and walked out of the building where they were being held, looking for all the world like she was out for an evening stroll. She paused in the doorway for a moment then gestured the others forward. 

“Go,” Scott heard David tell the two fliers as soon they were outside. “Head Northwest, you should find a highway tomorrow around sunset.” 

Ahead of them Kamala made a wait gesture then nodded to someone they couldn’t see. A moment later she waved them on. They slipped across a darkened street. 

They made it three quarters of the way to the edge of the city without being caught. Then, “Hey, what are you doing? Stop right there!”

The jar James had taken with him burst into flames and he threw it at their discoverer. Scott wasn’t sure if the other person survived the explosion or not but in the aftermath a second man formed from the flames. “Hey, Shockley,” James called. “Welcome to Inhuman central. Apparently the new head-honchos decided that they have jurisdiction over us, ‘cause we’re freaks like them. Now don’t say I never did anything nice for you.”

A slow, cruel grin twisted the jar-guy’s face and he vanished. A moment later there was another explosion, then another. “Welp, they should have fun with each other,” James remarked. “Shockley’s pretty much unkillable, and finding out he was Inhuman only made him hate ‘em more. I’m betting he racks up an impressive body count before they figure out a way of dealing with him. Now, we were escaping?”

‘That expression of horror looks really out of place on Brian Bolt’s face,’ Scott found himself thinking. He felt an embarrassing degree of relief when he realized that Kamala and the rest of the kids were looking to David for answers.

“You can't just go around killing people,” David shouted at James.

“Think you mean ‘shouldn't’ cause take a look, I just did,” James replied, unrepentant. “Try stopping him if you gotta, but I'm not into risking myself for a bunch of freakish kidnappers.”

David’s hands clenched and unclenched, “We did this,” he said. “But-” his gaze shifted to the younger kids in the group. “But they did kidnap us and I don’t know how to make it right. We’ve got to go.”

* * *

“Colonel Rhodes, I have confirmed that the children are here and are in the processes of an escape attempt,” Vision reported nodding to the two young fliers. “I am also detecting multiple explosions in the city.” 

“Let’s go pick them up,” Rhodes said. 

“I am sending two fliers to rendezvous with the jet,” Vision added. “They have indicated that the other children were being held in the center of Lai Shi and were headed toward the city’s eastern perimeter to make their escape.”

* * *

An explosion threw Quake from her bed. She rolled to her feet and ran out into the main room. 

Max was staring out the window as a quinjet appeared over the city. “It’s just like last time,” he said. “They attack us without provocation once again.”

Quake didn’t bother explaining that last time Jiayang had been behind the attack on Afterlife, not S.H.I.E.L.D. If she hadn’t seen her mother kill Raina to keep the fact quiet she wouldn’t have believed it herself and she had friends who were dyed in the wool S.H.I.E.L.D. Quake wondered what Max and the others called the destruction of Mount Rushmore if not ‘provocation’.

Kamal looked up from his phone, “Our off-world allies inform me that they have picked up communications from the Chinese Military. We can expect fighter jets overhead in two hours. They have the firepower to defeat them but the moment they reveal themselves the Nova Corps will become aware of their presence and they will have to flee. They suggest we make preparations to leave immediately.”

Another explosion shook the room. “Okay, I’m going after whoever’s doing that,” Quake announced. “While we’ve still got a city to shrink.”

Melanie and Brian share a quick, silent conversation. “Start evacuating the city,” Melanie said. “Max, go get Lang and prepare to trigger the Reduction Staves.” 

“We haven’t finished setting the staves,” Max growled. “You lot were always on me about not working the poor human to death.”

“You’ve got two hours, do what you can,” Melanie said, her voice hard. “Crystal, go with him, get the less cooperative children ready to move. Brian will take Lockjaw and teleport out to meet the jets. Kamal and I will take a small force and make sure Quake isn’t in over her head.”

* * *

“A teleporting dog?” FRIDAY exclaimed. “Now I’ve seen everything.”

“Evasive!” Rhodes exclaimed, focusing in on the man with the dog. 

“Fall.” Bolt said but War Machine was between the quinjet and the Inhuman, repulsors firing. Rhodes’ counterattack blunted the blast, enough to save the quinjet, but War Machine spun out of control. 

Vision dove after War Machine. 

“The jet!” Rhodes shouted as he pulled out of the spin on his own. “I’m good.”

Vision intercepted Bolt’s next word, the force of it expending itself against his outstretched hands. “You will do no more harm,” Vision declared, the gem on his forehead glowing dangerously as memories of Leipzig filled his mind with startling clarity. 

“Go ahead,” Rhodes shouted. Spidey used War Machine as an anchor point and swung himself and Komodo to the ground.

* * *

“Who set you loose?” Quake asked spotting the naked man stalking through the city. 

Shockley leered, “Seems like everywhere I go you’re there too. You stalking me, darling?”

* * *

There had been a few minutes when Scott had believed they’d make it out of the city without a serious confrontation. Then the tattooed martial artist from the prison break and a woman with prehensile hair showed up with a half dozen other Enhanced. 

Kamala put up a valiant struggle against the martial artist, expanding and shrinking her limbs in a one of a kind fighting style, but Scott could see she was being worn down. 

David had spent the first few minutes getting tied up in prehensile hair but had borrowed the martial artist’s skill and was quickly winning back the ground he’d lost. 

Scott pulled himself over to a wall and tried not to get trampled in the half-dozen other fights going on. 

James disappeared into the chaos, after leaving a few indiscriminate explosions for them to remember him by.

* * *

Max and Crystal stared at the swinging doors and empty cells. “They’re gone,” Crystal said.

“Grab the Staves,” Max ordered. “I can finish setting them without the human.”

* * *

While Bolt and Vision faced off, War Machine scattered a group of reinforcements. 

FRIDAY waited until the moment Bolt spoke then rolled and hit the afterburners, trying to get past him. But it only took a moment for him to turn his head and speak again. The Quinjet’s shields flickered under the buffeting and whole ship was knocked backward in the sky. 

A blast of raw power exploded from the Mind Stone set in Vision’s forehead. 

The dog grabbed Bolt’s pant leg in his mouth a moment before it struck and teleported them away leaving a smoking crater in the wake of Vision’s blast.

* * *

Quake dove for cover as Shockley exploded. Then before he could reform she used a vibrational blast to scatter his ashes to the wind. She waited for several minutes, warily scanning the area for any sign of him reforming. When nothing happened she released a slow breathe, “Don’t know if that killed him or just slowed him down, but I’ll take it.”

* * *

A lizard girl Scott vaguely recognized as one of the newer Avengers joined the fight along with Spider-Man. They dropped into a group of the younger kids who were attempting to overwhelm a lion-like man with numbers. “We’ve got this. There’s a ship coming behind us,” Spidey told the kids as he webbed up the lion-man.

“You’re getting rusty, Prodigy” Komodo said grinning toothily as she moved on to fight a woman with bark like skin.

David snorted as he slipped free of the last tangle of prehensile hair and landed a kick on the woman wielding it. “Want to talk about rusty? When you last published a paper Melanti?”

Komodo snorted, “Sit in a lab when I could be doing this?” she brought her elbow down on the bark-woman’s head, knocking her unconscious.

“You were nine-tenths of the way to regrowing limbs and you gave it up for being an adrenaline junky,” David complained. “You gave me up.” 

Spider-Man used a webline to yank the martial artist away from Kamala, “Work-life-superhero balance, they both need to work on it,” he remarked with a nod toward David and Komodo, eliciting a giggle.

“He’s really good Spidey,” Kamala warned. And true to her warning the martial artist had somehow broken Spidey’s webbing and returned to the fight. Spidey ducked his blow without looking, spun and kicked him, his enhanced speed and strength barely countered by the other man’s supernatural ability to spot weaknesses. 

Scott hobbled to his feet and tried to shoo a few more of the kids in the direction Spider-Man and Komodo had pointed the first group. 

Then the Quinjet was sinking to hover a few above the street, it’s back hatch open. War Machine swooped down and opened fire while Vision waded into the fighting freeing the kids to run for the jet. Spider-Man joined Vision while Komodo and David positioned themselves on either side of the hatch, boosting the smaller children into the jet. Scott hung back until the last of the kids was in then let Komodo toss him on board. “Go!” she shouted as she and David leapt in. 

Spider-man broke off from round three with the martial artist and shot a web at the bottom of the rising jet. He swung around and slid into the closing hatch. War Machine and Vision took to the air covering the FRIDAY’s retreat.

* * *

After the Quinjet had vanished over a ridge the Inhumans assessed the situation. 

“Fighter jets are still inbound,” Kamal reported. “They’ll be here in an hour. We no longer have hostages to deter them from firing on us.”

“They were never hostages!” Crystal exclaimed angry over the comms as she and Max worked feverishly to finish setting the Staves.

“Keep getting everyone aboard the Ravager ships,” Max interrupted. “I’m increasing the spacing between the Staves to finish in time, even with my the least conservative estimate of the required spacing we’ll cut it close.” 

“We were only planning on having the Ravagers take around eighty people,” Quake pointed out. “Those with known powers. Everyone else was supposed to get berths on the Nova ships.”

“Max is right, there’s no time,” Melanie said. “They know we’re here. The potentials won’t be able to filter back into society without suspicion. Anyone we leave will be targeted.”

“Shouldn’t we at least talk to the Ravager captain about this?” Quake asked.

“I need more time to get the Staves set!” Max said over Quake.

There was a pause. “Brian will buy you the time,” Melanie said. “With Lockjaw there’s a chance he’ll be able to teleport to the Ravager ship while it’s in flight.”

“Even if we take out the Chinese squadron, the Ravagers are detecting increased activity at military installations near the Chinese border in Russian, Indian, Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Kamal reported. “Also, it’s only a matter of time before the Avengers return in force.”

For the first forty minutes the evacuation was orderly. The Inhumans packed up their things and rearranged the partitions set up in the cargo hold of the Ravagers ships to deal with triple the expected occupancy. 

Then it sunk in for one family that their rebellious daughter was among those who’d escaped with Avengers and there were no plans to retrieve her. “The whole reason for going was to keep her safe! We’re not leaving without her!” 

“She made her choice,” Kamal replied without sympathy. 

“Molly’s a child! She doesn’t know what’s best for her.”

“If you wish to stay then stay. The ship will be overcrowded as it is.”

“Kamal!” Melanie protested. She turned to the distraught parents. “Mr. and Mrs. Hayes, I agree with you completely. Molly should be here, she should be safe in the arms of a society that doesn’t view her as a weapon. But practically speaking, we can’t go after her. As much as I want to save her and the rest of her foolish friends, there are too many forces arrayed against us. If we miss this window we will save no one, our entire culture will perish with the doomed Earth.”

Fifteen minutes before the fighter jets were anticipated Brian Bolt had Lockjaw teleport him out of the city to confront them on the on a ridge several hundred miles from Afterlife. 

Five minutes before the jets the Inhumans began to get a real sense of how crowded conditions in the cargo hold were going to be, a few fights broke out over space. 

Brian caught sight of the squadron of jets and shouted. The lead flight disintegrated, the other three split, breaking into evasive maneuvers as they searched for the source of the threat, but a lone person was a hard target for a jet’s radar to pick out from the terrain. Brian took out several more jets with impunity. Several of the jets launched their missiles in the general region the attacks, hoping to get lucky even if they couldn’t pinpoint their attacker.

After the first few moments of confusion the squadrons reformed and blasted past Brian’s position, forcing him to relocate ahead of them to defend the city. As he shouted, a trailing, low flying jet spotted him and fired. Brian didn’t see it until the ridge where he stood was engulfed in flames. The surviving three jets in the squadron flew on toward Afterlife, although only one of the three still carried a payload. 

Just as the jets reached Afterlife the city vanished in a crackling ball of lightning. Moments later a spaceship blasted off. As it left the atmosphere several Nova Corps ships moved to intercept but they were too slow and the Ravager ship was gone from the solar system leaving behind nothing more than a trail of exhaust particles.

* * *

Quake stood crammed near the small view port in the hangar door watching as the sun became a spec of light, nothing more than another distant star. She reached into her pocket and touched her cell phone wishing she could call Coulson, tell him how she’d been swept up in the final minutes of the evacuation and ended up on ship with other evacuating Inhumans but she was okay.

She wanted to call and ask him if they’d done the right thing. In her head she saw his small, ironic smile. “We did what we thought best. I suppose we’ll have to ask our grandkids if we were right once they’re grown.”


	5. Priority Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Credit to Kuramas_Kat for suggesting having the draft impact Pepper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: So I was looking for an unimportant character in Norse myth to be Thor’s assistant now that he’s taking a more grown-up role in Asgard’s governance and remembered the story about the kid who, at Loki’s urging, tastes the marrow of one of Thor’s goats despite Thor specifically instructing that none of the bones be broken while the goats’ meat is used to feed the family, Thor and Loki and ends up Thor’s servant as punishment. When I looked for the kid’s name, I found Marvel had also used the same kid in a Thor story… So I went with the same spelling Marvel used: Thialfi, rather than Þjálfi. But his use in Marvel doesn’t matter, I picked him because he’s Thor’s servant and someone who’s open to manipulation by Loki.
> 
> There are also a bunch of names of characters I’ve attached to various international teams. It’s the written equivalent of a huge group shot just intended to show that as IW draws close Avenger-equivalent teams are being created and a continental based jurisdiction is coming into existence. But to save anyone who feels obligated to look them up: 
> 
> Alexei Shostakov/Ronin - attached Rhodes’ Avengers since being part of the international team that confronted the Scarlet Witch in Sudan. 
> 
> Hughes Aït-Kaci/Tiger - Algerian, experienced military personnel with super-soldier powers plus invulnerability
> 
> Ruth Bat-Seraph/Sabra - Israeli, government agent, super-soldier powers plus flight. Was also part of the group that fought Wanda.
> 
> Navid Hashim/Arabian Knight - Saudi Arabia, government agent, has a magic sword and a flying carpet
> 
> Xi'an Coy Manh/Karma - Vietnamese, psychic possession normally a mutant but an Inhuman in this AU
> 
> Han, Chang, Lin, Sun, and Ho Tao-Yu/Collective Man - Chinese, super-soldier powers, short term giant-man abilities, can teleport to one another’s location.
> 
> Joey Chapman/Union Jack - English, adventurer, super-soldier powers
> 
> Dmitri Bukharin/Crimson Dynamo - Russian, Russian equivalent Avengers member, Iron Man equivalent.
> 
> Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez - Colombian/Inhuman, associated with S.H.I.E.L.D. (Assume she signed the Accords and became a core member of a South American Avengers group. It is HARD to find South America characters who aren’t associated with drug cartels or criminal organizations), superspeed but returns to her original location after a heartbeat. 
> 
> Roberto da Costa/Sunspot - Brazilian, assume he’s a graduate of Avenger’s Academy or a South American equivalent, solar absorption and rechanneling (energy blasts and flight generally)
> 
> Yes, there are a lot of super soldiers, it seems to be the most common power-set for characters who has ‘represents a country’ as their defining trait.

**September 2019**

Thor and Bruce watched as the New Avengers: War Machine, Captain Marvel, Ronin, Vision, Wasp, Spider-Man and Komodo filed into the auditorium along with representatives from similar teams from around the world: Black Panther and Tiger from the African team, Sabra and Arabian Knight from the Middle East, Karma and Collective Man from Asia, Union Jack and Crimson Dynamo from Europe, Yo-Yo and Sunspot from South America and Dr. Strange, representing an ancient, international coalition of magic users. Looking and feeling out of place they were joined by Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan and Harley Keener.

Once everyone had found a place, Thor stood up. “As I told Earth’s United Nations, Asgard had found that your world has an ally in Niflheim. I have been entrusted with delivering his gifts to you.”

“Isn’t that, um, the Nordic realm of the dead?” Spider-Man asked raising his hand.

Komodo elbowed him with a look that clearly said she didn’t think the interruption was appropriate. But Thor nodded gravely. “It is rumored to be the resting place of souls,” he said. “But even in Asgard, the true nature of Niflheim is a matter of speculation and mystery rather than of fact. However I can assure you that Odin All-Father has attested that the Armorsmith is a fine ally in the war against Thanos.”

* * *

**May 2019**

Christine Everhart smoothed her hair then stared directly into the camera and waited for the signal that she was on. “This is Christine Everhart, on scene where, late last night police rescued the two dozen kidnapped residents of the small Eastern Oregon town of Harper. The individuals, all members of an extended clan who made their home in the isolated high desert region became suspected of being pre-transformation Inhumans when they all applied to immigrate to New Earth.

“Shortly after applications of two of the immediate families in the group were accepted the entire group was taken captive by radical members the Watch Dogs, an organization noted for their anti-Inhuman rhetoric. The captives were force fed Terrigen contaminated fish oil pills, triggering the transformation of nearly three-quarters of the captives into Inhumans.

“Messages sent to local news agencies imply that the attack was intended to prevent pre-transformation Inhumans from immigrating to New Earth. The message claimed they were motivated both to keep New Earth ‘pure’ and to prevent pre-transformation Inhumans from evading the Enhanced Draft. Representatives of both political parties have stepped forward to condemn the kidnapping. It has been widely suggested that the family should be allowed to leave for New Earth as planned to discourage any future attacks of this nature.

“In related news the surviving members of the Powers family have stated that they will depart for New Earth. The four Powers children, currently between the ages of 16 and 9, all underwent accidental Terrigenesis in 2015. Until earlier this year, Alex, the oldest of the four was enrolled in the Avengers Academy’s secondary course for those intending to pursue a career as an Enhanced peacekeeper. The other three children had returned to the public school system after successful completion of the mandatory studies in controlling their powers.

“Jim and Maggie Powers applied to relocate the family to New Earth shortly after the Enhanced Draft was amended to allow the immigration of underaged Enhanced and where scheduled to leave the planet in April. But a gunman opened as the family attempted to enter one of the Nova Transports, killing Maggie Powers and her ten year old daughter Katie before Alex Powers, in cooperation with the Nova Corps was able to apprehend the shooter.”

* * *

**July 2019**

Betty Brant from the Daily Bulge took a seat in the shared lobby between Pepper Potts and James Rhodes’ offices at Stark Towers. While she waited Betty reviewed the questions she planned on asking Colonel Rhodes.

‘First the boiler plate stuff: The Academy’s primary purpose is to instruct young Enhanced on controlling their powers before they’re set loose on society- Might be a bit interesting since it’s usually Captain Danvers who talks about the Academy.

‘Students who chose to stay on after that receive at least a year of theoretical training around conflict resolution and global politics, mostly to keep them busy until they turn eighteen- I should ask if that’s changed given the imminent threat from Thanos. Also get verification the Harley Keener’s taking the theoretical classes this year, it’ll be a good lead in since he’s not really Enhanced, Keener could always choose not to put on the Iron Man armor.

‘Then the meat of the interview: Rhodes’ decision to allow two unEnhanced, an eighteen year old girl and a nineteen year old boy, to join the current Avengers-in-Training class. Is it sane, safe or responsible to encourage these kids to think they could be the next Hawkeye or Black Widow? What about the others who will, inevitably, want to emulate them? How many resources are being redirected to get baseline humans up to a level where they’re capable of being anything but a liability on a superhero team?

‘Will these two be receiving specialized equipment from Stark Industries to support their efforts? Does this represent a departure from Tony Stark’s policy of maintaining extremely tight control over his weapons designs? -I don’t think Rhodes has the gall to try that ‘prosthetics’ nonsense Stark trotted out when anyone called Iron Man a weapon.- A departure from the company policy implemented following Stark’s kidnapping by the Ten Rings? If so, why is the government NOT being involved in the selection process for individuals deemed sufficiently responsible to receive mechanical enhancement... While it’s understandable that Dr. Stark wanted to offer Ms. Potts protection given the number of times she’s been targeted due to her association with him… Should I bring up the rumors that Harley Keener is Stark’s illegitimate son? Maybe better to lump Harley, Rhodes and Hogan in together as individuals Stark personally knew and trusted. So Stark, the Sokovia Accord’s martyr, still placed his own judgement over anyone else’s when it came to sharing his tech. Is SI’s current leadership acknowledging the hypocrisy of that position?

‘How should I balance-’

Brant broke off her internal review as she noticed the receptionist’s irritated, slightly raised voice, “A warrant for Ms. Pott’s arrest? For not reporting for combat readiness training? Are you aware she hasn’t been home for more than a night in three months because she’s been overseeing Arc Shield projects around the world? ...Oh don’t bother, I’m transferring you to the legal department.”

Quietly Brant took out her phone. She turned on the recorder while trying to look like she was absorbed in the internet.

“Jennifer?” the receptionist said a moment later. “I’ve got someone from the Enhanced Draft Board on line two, swelled up with his own importance I’m guessing-” A pause then a sigh, “Okay, I’ll stick to ‘just the facts ma’am’. It still rubs me the wrong way to hear someone acting like having powers is what makes Pepper Potts indispensable. Apparently this guy sent Ms. Potts some sort of notification that she was supposed to report for combat readiness training to be in compliance with the draft. I can tell you nothing like that came through the office mail. And when would she have had time for that when she’s barely got time to breath making sure the Arc Shields are all on line before the first wave of the Invasion arrives with the new year? …Got it, I’ll let the Colonel know you need to see him at his earliest convenience. Should I warn Ms. Potts or should I let you call her in once you’ve heard out the puffed up little… Yeah, yeah slander. Have fun talking to him.”

‘So many ways to slant this,’ Brant thought. ‘J.J.J. is going to flip.’

* * *

Rhodes pushed aside the construction plastic and let himself into the penthouse. Even in the best of times Tony giving each of the Avengers their own floor, plus a common floor and a gym had been an extravagance, given what was coming it would have been obscene.

The entire Tower had undergone renovations to increase the population density. Cubicles and offices were converted to bullpen seating. The penthouse and the floor directly beneath it was being redesigned to comfortably house Pepper, Nettie, the Keeners and Happy, May and Peter Parker, Rhodes and his parents, Vision and FRIDAY, Helen and Amadeus Cho. There was a place for reserved for Hank and Hope Pym, Cassie Lang and her family once they had made the trip to New Earth and back after restoring the fifty cities. The other five levels had been converted to small apartments. In the rest of the building existing residents were given large rent reductions in exchange for the loss of space and the inconvenience as room was made for more people. After talking with Dr. Cho Pepper had left the gym intact but there were plans in place to convert the space into spillover space for the on-site hospital as needed.

Rhodes worked his way through the construction, occasionally using his cane to stabilize himself when he had to step over something, until he made it through to the finished section where Pepper had a corner set apart from the construction for rotating her wardrobe when she passed through New York. There was a table sitting in one corner with a stack of unopened mail.

Rhodes shook his head when he saw unopened Christmas Cards and they weren’t even at the bottom of the stack. “Getting as bad as Tones, Pepper,” he murmured to himself, shaking his head. Although the truth was he didn’t blame her. Rhodes remember boxes of pre-opened mail arriving for Tony in college, his skinny little brat of a roommate who’s mail had to be screened for death threats. If he’d ever had any inclination to feel jealousy over Tony’s fortune it had died with that first box of mail and been ground into dust in the weeks after Tony’s parents had been killed when his mom had taken to further screening Tony’s mail to weed out all the insincere, self-serving letters of condolence from people who only hoped to take advantage of the grieving seventeen-year-old heir to Stark Industries. And now with Tony’s death it was Pepper who left Christmas cards unopened rather than opening them to find out what people wanted from her.

Rhodes flipped through the stack of unopened mail and quickly found three draft notifications mixed into the pile. He grimaced.

* * *

**Bureaucracy at it’s Finest**

===========================================================================  
The Daily Bugle                                                   By: J. Jonah Jameson                                              July 20, 2019  
===========================================================================

A new aspect of the government’s Enhanced Draft came to light earlier today. Virginia Potts, CEO of Stark Industries and the driving force behind the Arc Shield project, which holds the promise of protecting millions of the Earth’s inhabitants also happens to be Enhanced due to an experimental serum which was forced on her in 2013.

Ms. Potts neither volunteered nor agreed to this procedure, it was not an experiment intended to save her life. When the inventors of the Extremis Virus found themselves stymied, unable to stabilize their creation on their own, they kidnapped Ms. Potts and forcibly injected her with their creation to force Dr. Stark to complete their work for them. After Extremis was stabilized Ms. Potts did not turn to vigilantism or otherwise place herself above the law. She returned to her job. In 2017 when SHRA was passed, Ms. Potts followed Dr. Stark’s example from the Sokovia Accords and became the first Enhanced to register her powers.

For the last year Ms. Potts has been heavily involved in the Arc Shield project, only taking off a few weeks after her daughter’s kidnapping. No sane person would question that her work on the Arc Shield project is a major contribution to the war effort and to the public’s safety, but according to the current administration she can better serve the public good as an infantryman. Perhaps we should be asking if the president who signed the order would also best serve his country in a position with less command responsibility.

* * *

On the video screen Pepper buried her face in her hands trying to hide the flush creeping across her face. “When did I decide that any important correspondence would arrive in my email box?”

May shook her head, “I can’t say I didn’t enable it, screening you business mail for anything important and hand delivering it. But I haven’t been in the Tower anymore than you have, not much draw with Peter living on campus this term while the remodeling is going on.”

Jennifer Walters, from SI’s legal department just shook her head. “I’ve contacted General Talbot and every other military liaison we’ve been in contact with whether it was for the Arc Shield project or their latest purchase of SI body armor and… My best guess? Someone will be losing a job over their handling of this matter. You should have opened the notices and contacted someone to straighten things out,” Jennifer scolded. “But you’ve been where you should be, doing what was most needed all along and this arrest business is ridiculous, the act of someone with a grudge either against you or against the Enhanced in general, not someone who should be in a position on the Draft Board. And if that wasn’t enough, he embarrassed his superiors.”

“Who’s currently heading the Draft Board,” Pepper sighed. “I’d still better call and apologize for letting this turn into such a mess.”

“Oh the mess hasn’t even begun,” May warned. “Somehow the Bugle found out. The story they ran was quite supportive, apparently Jameson only turns into an insane troll when Spider-Man is involved.”

* * *

“Come on, you can’t say it’s not draft evasion,” Flash argued. He turned a bit and glared at Peter across the tables the little group had pulled together in the college coffee shop, “And you, don't say anything. You and your Aunt both work for Potts, you’re totally biased here.”

“I just want to know what they were thinking calling her in the first place,” Liz replied. “She’s the only parent of a toddler. Nettie Stark already lost one parent because he stood up and fought for democracy, for a law the majority of the whole world supported. If it was any sort of legal draft Ms. Potts would totally be exempted because the cost of supporting a war isn’t supposed to fall so heavily on any one family. Didn’t you watch ‘Saving Private Ryan’?”

“Oh come on, she’s super rich. She can just hire someone to take care of the kid,” Flash replied. “She probably does anyway.”

“Okay, interjecting some fact into your debate,” Peter said. “My aunt’s babysitting skills are part of why she’s Pepper’s PA. Even with her being the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world, who’s deep in the middle of preparing for Thanos, Pepper spends time with Nettie everyday.”

“Ms. Potts is rich and could hire someone to take care of her kid so she shouldn’t be exempted from duties that would get in the way of her being a good mom but if she actually did that everyone would be screaming about how she’s a terrible parent,” Liz huffed. “There’s no winning for her. It’s the same thing that happened to Tony Stark: The Avengers forgave that horrible witch because she was a poor, pathetic orphan in addition to being a terrorist the moment she turned on the waterworks and said ‘I made a mistake’. But Tony Stark? Eight years as Iron Man and everyone was still holding it over his head that SI made weapons- LEGALLY! For the military. You know the real reason why the Witch got off so easy? She didn’t have anything anyone wanted. Tony, they made him pay for anything and everything a dozen times over because even with everything they took from him they still hadn’t bled him dry.”

“Why not?” Felicity asked. “It was blood money, Stark made it by war profiteering, why shouldn’t he have to pay it back to society.”

“Yeah!” Flash exclaimed. “It’s not like the Arc Shield thing is a charity, it’s an SI product line.”

“Do you pay any attention to the news,” Liz snapped. “All the profits from sales of the Arc Shields are going toward paying for the materials needed to make Arc Shields in places where they can’t pay for it, and SI is donating their people’s time to build those facilities. How can it be profiteering when SI’s losing money on the deal?”

“That’s SI now,” Felicity replied. “Before 2008, they were raking it in for making bombs.”

“Tony Stark didn’t create the demand,” Liz argued. “SI weapons were hands down the best, that’s why the government kept coming back to him. We’re a capitalist society, why shouldn’t he make money off of being the best at what he did?”

“As if Tony Stark really did anything for the company,” Flash snorted. “Have you seen some of the YouTube videos of him?”

“Interjecting again,” Peter said. “Most everyone at the company agrees that Pepper’s the best CEO they ever had, Howard Stark included, but Dr. Stark’s patents generate twice the revenue for the company than any other two contributors. In part it’s because he has so many, SI still gets paid for every handgun manufactured that uses the clip ejection design Tony Stark came up with when he was ten. SI’s board of directors could have blocked Tony from becoming CEO. Given that he was twenty-one, no one would have even questioned it if they’d decided to keep Obadiah Stane on for a few more years”

“Who’s to say he didn't create the demand,” Felicity said. “I mean wasn't that Iron Man’s original thing? Recovering SI weapons from terrorists after he got blown up by one of his own missiles?”

“If there wasn't some huge mitigating circumstance don't you think the government wouldn't have used that to take Iron Man away from him during those Senate Hearings in 2010?” Liz asked. “There are a lot of laws about who you can sell missiles to and you don’t get to say ‘Oops, I didn’t know who the end user was’, there had to be some significant break in the purchase chain between Tony Stark and where the missiles ended up or he would have been in trouble for it. In trouble with people who were mad at him for stopping weapons development and production from SI.”

“So you got an inside scoop on that too?” Flash asked Peter.

Peter shook his head, the main thing he’d learned about Afghanistan was that it was a closed subject with Pepper and Rhodes. The kidnapping was an old scar, one Peter couldn’t imagine poking at over idle curiosity.

“You know what I think,” Liz continued. “Tony Stark was out in the field along with the other original Avengers, doing everything they did. Then on top of that he designed and built the rest of the team’s equipment, he funded the team, boarded the team, he dealt with the aftermath of their battles. So you know why I think they acted like his past was so much more unforgivable than Little Miss Terrorist’s? Because if they didn’t convince themselves that Tony Stark owed the world more than the rest of them then they’d have to face up and acknowledge how much more he did for the Avengers. And then they might have felt obligated to step up their game.

“Look at the new Avengers: In addition to fighting Colonel Rhodes manages SI’s R&D and sees that the Avengers are well equipped. Hope van Dyne and Hank Pym administer the September Foundation and deal with restoration of any collateral damage, plus they handle the a Wasp gear themselves. Captain Danvers and Lieutenant Shostakov run the Academy. Rhodes, Danvers and van Dyne are all heavily involved in liasoning with the Accords and SHRA administrators. Even Vision and Spider-Man help with training new Enhanced and they’re both considered the junior team members. Compare that to the old Avengers, what did anyone not named Tony Stark ever do besides show up and fight?” Liz turned a fierce glare on Flash, “But you probably think those Watch Dog people have the right idea.”

“Oh give me a break Allen!” Flash exclaimed. “Just because I’m not as enamored with Stark as you are that doesn’t mean I side with those sick-o’s. Did you see the pictures of that kid they shot? She was hardly more than a baby.”

“Congratulate me!” Gwen Stacy declared as she walked in and pulled Peter up into kiss. “My designs for compact apartments won the contest, they’re going to be used in one of the buildings being remodeled to get more people housing under the NYC Arc Shield.”

“That’s great!” Peter exclaimed and the others hurried to add their praise to the young architect’s success.

* * *

“Mr. Murdock, you’ve been at the forefront of the legal battle against the Enhance Draft,” Trish Walker said. “So do you have anything to say about Virginia Potts being excused from the service as described in the executive order?”

“I think it’s more evidence that the Enhanced Draft was a poorly thought out law, an attempt to be seen doing something about a crisis without putting the proper thought into what actions would truly help,” Matt replied. “It’s been a year since the first version of the Enhanced Draft was put forward. When challenged each new version has failed to meet the legal standards of this country. At some point it has to be admitted that this law was a mistake and we’ve already wasted far too much time on a dead end path.”

* * *

**September 2019**

A rainbow flash of light split the sky and the Earth trembled. When the light cleared Thor stood in the center of a burned rune on the roof of the UN building in New York, Dr. Bruce Banner and an oddly non-descript Asgardian flanked him. A stack of ornate boxes appeared between the trio. “I would speak to Mid- to Earth’s leaders on behalf of Odin All-Father of Asgard,” Thor announced.

“You’re not here to sign the Accords?” a startled security guard asked.

Thor straighten, “Were I here, as I have been in the past, as an individual who wished to repay this realm for the hospitality it has offered then I would sign. However, today I am here as Thor Odinson, first prince of Asgard and as a representative of the alliance between the realms of Asgard, Vanaheim, Nidavellir and Alfheim. I am here not to offer my aid as an individual but to negotiate adding Earth to our pact of mutual defense in the face of the threat represented by Thanos.”

After several hours of phone conferences between members of the Accords committee it was decided that Thor, Dr. Banner and Thor’s diplomatic attache, Thialfi should stay at the Avengers’ Academy while their status under the Accords was determined. Bruce was the sticking point in the discussion as his control over the Hulk was questionable at best and no one wanted to find out the hard way if the collars that were commonly used to suppress psionic powers didn’t work to prevent his transformation.

* * *

 

“Dr. Banner,” Rhodes said. He held out a thick sheaf of papers. “I've highlighted the sections dealing with defining ‘control of powers’ and added supplemental information on various cases where individuals contested SHRA findings that they were a danger to the public.”

Bruce looked at the documents doubtfully, “Do you want to save me some time and just tell me where they want to lock me up if I don't go back to Asgard with Thor?”

“Read them before you make up your mind about what they say,” Rhodes replied. “They aren't great for someone like you but they aren't completely draconian either. Most people with control issues have psionic powers and we can just block them. Your situation’s unique enough that efforts stalled.” Rhodes hesitated for a moment then added, “I’m sorry.”

* * *

It took another day for the subcommittee charged with overseeing preparations for Thanos’ coming invasion to decide that what Thor was proposing was outside of their scope. They referred the matter to the Security Council.

Thor stood at the center of the semicircle of representatives. “In ages past Asgard oft times come to Mid- to Earth’s defense, your myths attest to this fact. We would come to your aid once again in the face of the threat of Thanos, not simply as an act of charity but because if we do not stop him here, it is feared that he will continue to spread his mad war against life along the trunk of Yggdrasil. However, the people of Earth have matured since Asgard’s last intervention on your behalf, we are no longer your gods, but beings you can fight along of. It is no longer appropriate for us to fight the enemies of this Realm without first entering into formal relations with its inhabitants...”

The Security Council discussed the proposed alliance for two days before concluded that a special session of the General Assembly would be required to make a decision.

* * *

One evening after Thor finished speaking with the UN representatives he found Darcy Lewis sitting in front of the Avenger’s Academy watching the sunset. “My Lady Darcy!” Thor exclaimed enthusiastically.

Darcy hopped off the wall and walked up to him grinning. “Look at you! All grown up and statesmen-like! I talked Everett’s ear off until he surrendered before the force of my awesomeness and gave me a seat in the General Assembly audience.”

“You were there?” Thor’s eyes widened. “I humbly apologize for not noticing you.”

“Aww, is the Thunderer nervous about public speaking?” Darcy laughed, “That is sooo cute.”

“It is impossible for me to forget that when doing battle in the realm of words my brother was vastly more skilled than I,” Thor said. “In recent years my father has begun shifting some of his duties to me and I have come to learn that king-ship has much of listening and speaking, of building consensus. And relatively little of leading men into battle. Do you feel I did justice to Asgard’s proposal?”

“Mmm,” Darcy waffled. “Honest evaluation?”

“I would not ask you to besmirch your honor to spare my feelings.”

“Solid B-minus,” Darcy said. “Good job hitting on all the work Asgard has already put into ensuring the other Realms are ready and willing to come to Earth’s aid, and telling us what your stakes are in this fight. Bu-utttt…. A little paternalistic reminding us that humans are only just getting an invite to the adult table. After the dust cleared from Avengers’ Civil War, the largest consensus among us baseline folks was that we don’t want some Enhanced coming along and telling us he knows best what’s good for us.”

“Is that how the actions of those who refused to sign the Sokovia Accords were perceived among the populace?” Thor asked.

“When something blows up like that you’ve gotta ask ‘What went wrong’,” Darcy said. “What I saw, looking at the Avenger’s PR? After Tony Stark stepped back from the team the money for restoration kept coming after the battles but instead of an Avenger standing up and explaining what went wrong or even why the fight had to happen, it was Maria Hill and half the time you just had to listen to her to know that SHE was out of the loop. Without Tony Stark, the Avengers didn’t talk to us normal people, they did their thing and the day might have been saved but there were always people who weren’t saved and nobody cared enough to talk to about the lives lost and the damage done. They just kept moving on to the next battle.

“Then Lagos happened, nearly forty people dead because the Scarlet Witch thought their apartment building was a good place to dispose of a bomb, and none of the Avengers were saying anything about it. Which leads to the Sokovia Accords getting shoved through the UN in record time, and honestly? I don’t think they were better for the speed. Steve Rogers doesn’t go to Vienna, I don’t know what message he meant to send but what the world heard was that he didn’t think the UN’s concerns about the Avengers were worth listening to. He has Barton bring the witch into a fight when, in any other peacekeeping organization, she would have been suspended pending a review of her actions. Whether or not Lagos could have been avoided, she and Roger’s team were directly involved in a lot of deaths, questions needed to be asked. What a lot of people heard from that was the Avengers considered themselves above questioning. A lot of people, even people who believed that Steve Rogers was right in Lagos, in Bucharest, at Leipzig, even people who thought his actions would have been validated weren’t happy about the way the Avengers didn’t answer to anyone.” Darcy sighed, “So reminders that you and the rest of Asgard used to be our gods, it’s not going to go over well. But- um- that’s not why I stopped by.”

Thor looked hopeful and Darcy felt like she was about to kick a puppy dog.

“It’s been more than four years,” she said softly. “Jane didn’t wait, she’s married, expecting a baby in six months. She didn’t want you to hear from anyone else but she didn’t know if you’d want to see her either, so I’m the compromise. After you came back last time, Jane understood she could wait her whole life for you and it would just be a season to you, it wouldn’t mean the same thing. She wanted you to know you’d always hold a place in her heart and if you wanted to see if the two of you could be friends she’d love that, but she made her choice and now the ball’s in your court if you want to try to preserve some sort of relationship.”

Thor closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Mayhap I will get back to you on that?” he said. “I- I was not expecting your news. I will need some time.”

Darcy reached up to put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, “Yeah, I’m hanging around for the General Assembly’s response, no hurry… And don’t be too nervous. We’re not in a position to turn away help, we’d still like to feel like you don’t have us over a barrel.”

* * *

“Odin All-Father has also reached out to the Realms of Jotunheim, Muspelheim and Niflheim. While there has been little interest in alliance from those parties-” Thor faltered for a moment. “While Niflheim as a realm has declined to offer support, an armorsmith of that realm has offered his services. I bring you his labors to aid Earth’s forces in the coming struggle. Some of his gifts are intended for specific individuals and those I will deliver personally, however he also sends gifts meant to aid the armies of Earth in repelling Thanos’ forces.”

Thialfi stepped forward carrying one of the chests and flipped the lid open. Everyone at the table had already been briefed on the contents of the chest after security had gone through it to make certain it wasn’t dangerous. It didn’t stop the gasps of awe as holographic displays lit up showing plans to transform fighter jets into extra-atmospheric fighters.

Then one of the representatives sat back with a disappointed sigh, “The strength-weight ratio is wrong,” he said. “Unless you’ve got some sort of magic to give aluminum more strength than steel it won’t work. I suppose we could rebuild with Titanium but that would give up the benefits of retrofitting.”

Thialfi grinned. “May I borrow a sheet of paper?” he asked.

Confused the man who’d brought up the technical issue tore a sheet of paper out of his notebook and handed it over. Thialfi folded it a few times to make a point then took a small device from the chest, attached it to the paper and switched it on. There was a small shimmer over the paper as the device activated then Thialfi drove the point of the paper into the marble floor. The paper didn’t crumple, the marble split. “I think you’ll find material properties are much more malleable than you might think.”

Thor picked up another of the devices from the chest. “These will provide the structural integrity the designs require. There are other inventions which will protect your machines from harmful magics. I have a thousand of each device, to be distributed evenly among Earth’s militaries, for use against Thanos. The aircraft will not have the means to leave Earth’s atmosphere under their own power but your allies in the Nova Empire have the means to ferry them to the outposts being built in your solar system’s primary asteroid belt. You will not be dependent on the Nova Empire to keep Thanos’ armies from Earth’s shores.

“While Asgard understands Earth’s desire to keep the battle at a distance, it is Asgard’s practice to meet enemies face-to-face. There is little aid we can offer space battles but our warriors are much more suited to fight on hostile environments. Thanos must be kept from getting a foothold, not just on Earth but on all planets in this solar system. The Asir and our allies offer to assist with ground forces on plants too harsh for human fighters.”

While the technology Thor brought was, in theory, to be distributed evenly between the Earth’s militaries, in practice the Security Council quickly created a short list of countries with the resources and technological advancement to make full use of them. The other UN countries were given the choice of deciding which of the countries on the list they would entrust their share to. Canada received a surprising share due to being widely regarded as less likely to be distracted by Earth bound conflicts than the U.S., Russia or China.

* * *

For the ninth time since the first Enhanced Draft became law a judge blocked it’s execution. Nothing was done in response. The government was much too deep in talks with the Nova Empire trying to secure armaments for their new space capable fighters to bother.

The ranks of the air force and navy were scoured for the very best pilots. Joint strategy sessions with Nova Corps and the other countries who had been entrusted with the means to make a space fleet were held to determine where the ships would be stationed, who would staff each of the six stations that had been built in the Asteroid belt as well as the two stations in Earth’s orbit and the base being built on the moon.

Early in November the eleventh Nova Empire transport ship left Earth with the fifty shrunk cities and nearly a thousand individuals who had been unable to leave earlier due to an Enhanced family member who’d been denied passage.

The Enhanced Draft went out with a whimper not a bang.

* * *

Thor climbed up to the top of a hill overlooking the lake behind the Avengers’ Academy. Bruce was sitting there cross-legged, eyes closed.

“I was told you have been out here for some time,” Thor said. “If the Accords make Midgard too restrictive for your comfort I am returning to Asgard to bring the weapons, now that the keys have been successfully delivered. If you wish to return with me… You and your other seemed to have reached a understand during our travels through the outer planets of the realm of Vanaheim. Heimdall could return you there.”

Bruce glanced up with a tired look. “It amazing how FRIDAY can extract her pound of flesh while being helpful,” he said. “The Accords have provisions for an Enhanced losing control of their powers under provocation. In the current version the focus is mostly about ensuring that the Enhanced are protected under the law if they use their power for self-defense. But the original intent was to put a legal burden on the provoker if they triggered someone like me. FRIDAY played the Accords sessions where Tony was arguing for it for me. The wording Tony managed to get included was pretty good, in theory it would have paved my way to return after Johannesburg-

“He had other plans to pull Maximoff out of the grave she’d dug for herself.” Bruce grimaced, “They all counted on her being an Avenger in good standing when the details of her past association with HYDRA became public.”

Thor made a questioning sound.

“I ran away and Tony felt like he owed her so he took all the blame for Ultron, including what happened in Johannesburg to keep Wanda’s collaboration with both HYDRA and Ultron out of the public eye. But that was only a short term patch,” Bruce explained. “Wanda’s past was inevitably going to come out. Given the files FRIDAY shared, when that happened Tony’s plan was to argue that she’d already redeemed herself, that any punitive measures would be about getting revenge not about rehabilitation. That, due to Wanda’s unique skills, taking her away from the good she was doing as an Avenger would be cutting off the nose to spite the face for the general public. If they used Clint and Natasha’s entry into S.H.I.E.L.D., which was a legitimately recognized organization at the time, as a precedent there was a chance, a decent chance, that Wanda would have ended up spending a few years where she’d continue as an Avenger but might be placed on house arrest or under surveillance to prove that her reformation was real.” He shrugged, “But trying to save someone from themselves is a futile, crazy-making task, because Wanda didn’t spend that year acting like someone seeking redemption for her past. Just looking at the public record to get an idea of how she’d read, she acted entitled, particularly in her refusal to have her actions reviewed after Lagos.”

Thor nodded his understanding.

“From what I’ve put together, Tony was willing to cover up Wanda’s culpability in the Ultron situation because he felt guilty enough about her parents to want her to have a chance to show that she’d changed before she was judged. Tony was able to get through the public backlash from Ultron with shows of remorse and the money he was pouring into restoration because his involvement was neither malicious nor was it negligent. He made mistakes but he was trying to do the right thing and he couldn’t have reasonably been expected to predict something like Ultron. Wanda couldn’t say the same. Even if we ignore her attack on Tony because no one knew about that back then, she aided Ultron purely out of malice until she got cold feet about inducing an extinction level event. If her original alliances had come to light she would have ended up in a jail cell, if not lynched or shot in the back of the head. Tony tried to protect Wanda from that, because he felt like he owed her. But what he was doing with getting provocation recognized in the Accords? If Johannesburg came down to Wanda or I he was going to throw her under the bus. What Tony managed to get into the Accords wasn’t a guarantee of my safety,” A look of disgust crossed Bruce’s face, “With Ross involved in the Accords the loopholes in the provocation sections were big enough to thread with a blue whale but Tony was trying to look out for me. I feel like shit for abandoning him to face the fallout for Ultron on his own because, as much as the Avengers apparently like to ignore it, Tony did consult me on Ultron and I might have had reservations but I did sign off on continuing the project.”

Thor nodded thoughtfully. “I think the man I was four years ago would have resented the Accords,” he said. “I was only accustomed to answering to my father. I had come to respect Steve for his skill in combat but to have a body of courtiers, and that is how I would have regarded your politicians, attempt to dictate rules to me? I would have been gravely insulted. In the years since then I have taken a more active role in ruling Asgard and have had to learn the limits of a king’s power. Even in an absolute monarchy there are things I should not, cannot do without risking rebellion.

“The Avengers had no choice but to sign the Accords if they wished to continue,” Thor said. “Even the most robust system of government will not have planned for every contingency, individuals on the ground will have to step outside of the existing system to respond to the immediate need. A healthy system will acknowledge its shortcomings and grow to encompass new realities. A weak system will turn a blind eye and leave the responders to the unanticipated situation outside of itself, so long as the individuals involved still make a public show of obeisance. The Accords were the act of a weak system attempting to heal itself.

“The governments of this world were not ready to deal with the likes of the Chitauri or with Enhanced criminals and so the Avengers and individual vigilantes stepped up to fill the lack. As long as we attested to our subordinance to the law and the officials chose not to challenge the truth of our subordinance the status quo was sustainable.

“Steve, through his refusal to accept the Accords, induced a state of rebellion. He refused to even give lip service to acting under the auspices of the law and so no government could afford to turn a blind eye. He was blatantly, openly breaking the law, any government that ignored him made obvious their impotence. A state of rebellion is not sustainable, it must either be put down or grow into a revolution that sweeps away the the old system and replaces it with something new. Steve brought on rebellion with no plan beyond demanding that the governments of the world return to playing ignorant of how the Avengers operated above the law. Governments cannot do that without making public their weakness and ineffectuality and so his rebellion had to be put down.”

“Tony was doing the only thing he could to keep the Avengers whole,” Bruce said, rubbing his temples. “And instead of backing his play those of us who weren’t gone actively tore him apart for acknowledging the fact that the world was unhappy with us acting outside of the law. Rhodes and Vision were the only ones who stood by him and they were with him long before they were Avengers if you count Vision as an extension of J.A.R.V.I.S.”

* * *

Rhodes stumbled into Pepper’s office with a dazed expression on his face, cradling the key Thor had presented to him.

Pepper looked up from her own key, her mascara was running.

“You’re seeing the same thing I am,” Rhodes said. “I don’t know how. I don’t care how. Tony built this.”

Pepper nodded, tears welling up again, along with a shaky smile. “When Peter said Niflheim was the realm of the dead I started thinking, but I couldn’t let myself hope, even when Tony was the only answer for why Happy and I would be included in a gathering of superheroes. But this,” she lifted the key slightly.

Rhodes nodded, “Even if the armors weren’t upgrades of what Tony had built for us before, it would still be the only conclusion, no matter how impossible. Tony invented his own coding language when the existing languages didn’t do what he needed them to for Dum-E, there’s no one else anywhere who would use it, but that’s the language running this core.”

Pepper wiped her face and stood up. “We need to have a discussion with Thor. We’re firmly in the realm of myth here, Eurydice, Baldur… The difference is we’re not going to screw it up, we’re getting Tony back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the Superhero Genre I tend to feel that vigilantism is justified by superpowered bad guys that the police can’t deal with (and while you’re out fighting Doc Ock if you happen to see a mugging it’s just good samaritanism to stop it). The problem with something like the Accords or SHRA is if you take it as an honest attempt by the government extend the system to include the heroes it’s a threat to the status quo and the superhero genre is also very much about maintaining the status quo. 
> 
> To maintain ‘Status Quo is God’ there has to be something inherently wrong with any government attempt to address the system’s shortcomings. And yet… Thor’s bit is why I don’t feel like you can have something like CW and hold on to the status quo. Once you’ve got a majority of the world’s leadership trying to address the gap that justifies the existence of superheroes even if there is a real problem with the first attempt you can’t just go back to turning a blind eye to vigilantism. Once there’s that much support behind making superheroing a regulated vocation you’ve got to keep trying until you make it work. Or you’ve got the governments openly acknowledging that they’re completely ineffectual and have no intention of doing anything to change that fact.


	6. New Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Settling in on New Earth.

Terry woke up feeling stiff as a board, his throat was painfully parched but at the same time the thought of sitting up seemed as daunting a task as scaling Mount Everest. When he finally managed to muster the willpower to pry his eyes open, he was assaulted by blinding white. 

“Go slowly,” a gravelly voice said. “Waking up from six months in suspended animation is no stroll through the angiospermae.”

Terry felt a straw pressed to his lips and eagerly sucked down some of the gloriously cool and sweet liquid. After a few moments he tried opening his eyes again. His nurse had a webbing between her fingers and the moist-looking skin of an amphibian. She smiled at him, “Better?”

Terry nodded. “Yeah,” he said then took another drink to sooth his throat. He spent the next two weeks recovering at the docking station in geosynchronous orbit around New Earth. From the station windows he was able to look down at his future home. At the foot of the space elevator that provided transportation between the station and the planet’s surface was a vast bay, roughly the same area as the Mediterranean sea. A ring of deep pits were being excavated around the bay to prepare sites for the cities being transported to New Earth. 

The evacuated dirt was being spread into fields and used to build up three pillars across the mouth of the bay. When the cities were placed the San Francisco peninsula would extend from the southern mouth of the bay with the Golden Gate Bridge stretching to join the city to the Island of Singapore. The Cape Town peninsula was to be placed at the northern mouth of the bay and would link to Singapore with just a small extension of the former Malaysia-Singapore Second Link. Together the three cities would gate the mouth of the bay.

The ring of cities bulged out to encircle a fertile plain at the east end of the bay which was in the process of being planted to farm land. Further east, about three hundred kilometers inland a dam was going up for drinking water, irrigation and hydroelectric power. New roads linked the cities and ventured delicately into the farm lands. A dense band of houses followed the path created by the new highways that join the city sites together.

Fifty miles past the perimeter of the circuit marked out by the cities defensive fortifications were going up. The Nova Empire had told them the planet had been uninhabited for eons. In spite of those assurances Earth’s refugees chose to huddle together and building walls to keep the alien world out was high on among their priorities. From his vantage point on the space station, Terry could just see the ruins of an ancient, alien city looming on the horizon. As he let his eyes linger on the jagged darkness Terry felt his powers stir. Even from 35,000 kilometers up the long dead city was still seeped in such fear that his powers reacted. Terry shivered and looked away. He was only surprised that there were priorities besides defensive fortifications.

* * *

Seeing the Ravager captain standing at the entrance to the cargo hold Quake started picking her way through the crowd of milling Inhumans to learn what brought him. 

She smiled a bit at the sight of little Luna carefully building a nest of odds and ends to hold their shrunken city secure for the journey, there wasn’t much else to smile about. Lines were forming in front of the few facilities that made the ones at Disneyland look insignificant. The cargo hold was kept reasonably warm and most of the blankets they’d brought had been turned into privacy screens but the air had turned uncomfortably humid overnight. There’d been a few fights due to the crowding, thankfully everyone was too aware of the vastness of space and the thin skin of metal shielding it from them, so nothing went past shouting and shoving. 

Melanie and Max arrived from other directions at about same time as Quake. “Is there something wrong?” the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent asked the Captain. “I noticed the increased humidity.”

“Too many people breathing,” the Captain grunted. “The reclaimers can’t pull the condensate fast enough, but you’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

“Is there enough water?” Melanie asked. Quake noted that, despite her composure, her eyes were very red.

“We’ll all be hating sonic showers by the time we get there,” the captain said. “But yeah, long as we ration no one’s gonna be hurting for water. Food on the other hand. We stocked enough for a hundred to eat comfortably. You brought two-hundred and twenty-eight plus there’s my crew of thirteen. Now I’m a decent sort, so my folks’ll be on short rations… Given your lot recognizes that you owe us for it. You’ll have to figure out how your people are going to manage it. It’s only two months, I figure you’ll all make it but you’re not going to enjoy it. The crew’ll be by with the day’s portion in a few hours, though I’d give you a heads up.” Having said his piece he turned and left.

“Some of us should stay strong,” Max said, lowering his voice, “We need to guard against these pirates trying to double cross us.”

Melanie and Quake traded a look, “No,” Melanie said firmly. “What we have, we’ll all share evenly.” Her gaze strayed toward Crystal and Luna, “Maybe a bit more for the children as they can’t tolerate deprivation as well.” 

The weeks wore on, everyone grew to hate the muggy and cramped cargo hold and the hollow feel of never having enough to eat. For the most part irritableness had settled into listlessness. Max and Melanie maintained an ongoing argument about forming a sort of elite guard and keeping them well-fed at the expense of the others. Sometimes Quake thought Max might have a point about them needing to be prepared for treachery from the Ravagers but most of the time she thought the Ravager captain was sufficiently upfront about the barrel he had them over that worrying about backstabbing was borrowing trouble. 

Earth’s sanctioned refugees had received plenty of support. The official New Earth colony was well planned and well supplied both from Earth and from the Nova Empire. Genocide was monstrous crime to any civilized society. The ruling officials of the Nova Empire didn’t want to explain to their descendants how they’d decided to wipe out an entire species of sentient beings, so they made the effort to preserve at least part of the human race. It wasn’t as if there weren’t unpopulated planets within the Empire’s borders. Perhaps they could have done more to evacuate the human race but they did have other priorities, bringing back the troop-transport ships full after using them to move the Nova Army into position on Earth was enough of a salve for their conscience, especially when many of those ships had come back with empty berths. They’d offered the humans a way out of the potential blast-zone that was enough, it wasn’t Nova Prime’s duty or right to force them to take it. 

The space station? It was quickly paying for itself in the savings of not having to organize mass transit from the troop transports to the planet’s surface and not having to leave the ships in orbit for an extended period while the humans recovered from a cryo-process that hadn’t been tailored to their species and that they hadn’t been conditioned to withstand, not the way Nova Corps soldiers had been. In the long run, the Nova Empire hoped trade would develop with the new colony, there was curiosity about the Terran crops the humans were importing with them. The planet itself had resources, of course, nothing sufficiently unique or abundant to be a reason to colonize the place but now that there were people living there it would likely be worth trading for them.

On Earth, the colony world was an insurance policy to many. Those who actually believed that the Earth wouldn’t survive were the ones who left but many of those who intended to stay still supported having something in place if the worst came to be. If the war turned against them there might still be chances for retreat but it would likely be disorderly, desperate. Setting up a place to retreat to ahead of time was just good sense. In some quarters there those who were optimistic about the war were discussions about overpopulation and how it was the best, maybe only, chance Earth would have to get help colonizing a new planet from a galaxy spanning empire. Take the chance, win the war, New Earth would still be theirs afterwards. The Nova Empire was underestimating humanity or had built Thanos up into some untouchable boogeyman, it would work out, seize the opportunity they’d been offered. For one reason or another a healthy majority of Earth’s population supported New Earth and put technology, money and resources into making the colony succeed. 

The Inhumans had none of that. They had their city and their powers and that was it. The Ravager captain wasn’t shy about detailing that they’d almost inevitably need supplies imported and how he could help… In exchange for the occasion use of their powers. The Inhumans had been an experiment in creating sentient weapons and the experiment had been a success. Hidden away as they were, with only Ravagers to turn to, those powers were also at the Ravagers’ disposal.

Crystal’s scream drew Quake out of her musings. A crowd quickly formed around the blond and a small Terrigenesis cocoon. “I don’t know what happened!” Crystal exclaimed. “Luna just started transforming. There was no Diviner, nothing.”

Melanie glanced toward the shrunken city. “We had Diviners in the city, maybe something happened to them when it shrank,” she suggested. “Luna’s spent more time than anyone else close to it.”

“It wasn’t my fault, I was rushed!” Max protested.

Luna remained cocooned and over the following days several of the other younger Inhumans also spontaneously began Terrigenesis, some of them for the second time. There was speculation about the tainted fish oil pills and then about survival pressure on their already malleable genetic structures as none of the cocoons shattered. 

Thirty-two fewer mouths to feed helped the food situation but not enough and the stress not knowing what was happening didn’t improve things overall. But after two of the longest months of Quake’s life the Ravager ship landed on the smallest of New Earth’s nine continents. They stumbled out of the cargo hold, hollow cheeked and bleary eyed. “Best of luck and I look forward to future dealings with you,” the Ravager captain said with a cold, covetous smile before leaving them to their own devices. 

Then there was no other option but to set about the business of surviving. The cocoons and the shrunken city of Lai Shi were carefully moved to a safe spot. The Awakened Inhumans divided themselves by their powers. Melanie led a group down to the shore to try their hand a fishing, Quake took another group to inventory and organize their scanty supplies while Max took another group in land to see what hunting or gathering was possible and Crystal lifted herself on the winds with the two other fliers to scout the area for a source of fresh water, for a site for their city. The other two thirds of the Inhumans, those without powers, quietly organized themselves into similar parties and went to offer their help.

Two days after they arrived several of the cocoons shattered. One of the newly Awakened proved to have a plant affinity. His power up an end to the acute danger of starvation as he was able to determine what plant-life was edible and induce those plants to produce a harvest in hours instead of a season. 

Crystal’s fliers found a site for the city within two days’ hike of their landing site. Using her powers Quake opened up a sinkhole to settle their city into. Max carefully set up the stolen equipment to suspend the shrunken city over the pit then he triggered the mechanism that restored the city. Lai Shi, Afterlife, reappeared with a massive boom of displaced air and settled into it’s new home. The city was a disaster. The area where the staves had been too widely spaced hadn’t shrank at a uniform rate and the the city looked like it had been struck by a sizeable earthquake. There was nothing they could do but try to rebuild.

The last of the cocoons broke open releasing Luna into her new home. “Something bad happened here,” she declared as she buried her face against her mother’s shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the horribly misnamed one shot finally ends and it’s a very open ended end. There’s an outside possibility that I’ll tie New Earth’s mysterious history into the Infinity Stones… But scope creep is becoming an issue with this series and I want to be sure that I don’t leave it unfinished, so odds are this is the end for the New Earth plotline: 
> 
> The colony is set up but it’s not a utopia. There will probably be future problems between the human and inhuman settlements. The Inhumans have their own internal problems that they brought with them and their debt to Ravagers to deal with. And the new world has it’s own mystery, which is not likely to a nice one. I probably should have done more with the baggage that the human settlement brought with them but I didn't want to undermine that they do have stronger foundation for their fresh new start.


	7. After-Credits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This scene was supposed to be a part of chapter 5 but I forgot to put it in. I just remembered it today, so I reworked it as an after-credits scene because I had intended to resolve Bruce’s position under the Accords in this story.

“Thaddeus Ross, please come with us.” 

Ross glared at the prison guards, faceless behind their armor and shielded helmets, but he got up from the bunk in the small isolation cell where he’d been held for the last three years. The guards led him to an elevator. “So you finally realized that you need me,” Ross said smugly, remembering the fine meal he’d been served the night before, clearly someone was trying to butter him up.

The guards didn’t say anything. 

That meal turned to lead in Ross’ stomach when he saw the heavily reinforced door they were leading him too. A wheel locked three crossbolts, each thicker than a man’s thigh, in place to bar the door. The metal of the door had a bluish sheen to it that Ross knew identified it as a vibranium alloy. “What is this?” he demanded as he was thrust into the cell clearly designed to hold the most powerful of Enhanced.

The guards left the door open but the weapons pointed at his chest ensured that Ross wouldn’t be leaving. A few moments passed in silence then a slight man with curly brownish-grey hair stepped into the cell. “You can’t do this!” Ross shouted as the door swung shut and a cool, dispassionate voice announced, “Dr. Banner, the test of your control over the entity known as the Hulk has begun.”

Bruce glanced over at Ross, “There’s no way anyone could open that door before the Hulk tore you limb from limb,” he remarked. “I’d almost call it a balm to my soul, seeing the high regard you’re held in by the current administration.”

Ross shrank away from Bruce. “Get me away from this monster! You can’t do this!” he yelled, his face purpling.

“Why don’t we give them their money’s worth,” Bruce said as he slowly closed the distance between them. “Really test my control. Why don’t we reminisce about how you corrupted my research and turned me into this? How you took my life from me and hunted me across three continents like an animal.” Bruce caught Ross by his shoulders and shoved the bigger man back against the wall. “Or maybe we could talk about how you weaseled your way into the Accords in a transparent ploy to gather a new power-base to use against me. How your involvement poisoned the Accords and undoubtedly played a major role in setting the stage for Tony Stark’s murder. The Hulk is- was very fond of Tony. We went to see his body.” Bruce closed his eyes, “I can still picture the injuries on his body.”

Ross looked away from the death he could see coming for him. He heard cloth tearing and felt the hands on his shoulders shift, becoming immense. His bowels released as the Hulk easily forced him to his knees. 

Then the behemoth laughed cruelly. Ross looked up, terror turning to shock as he saw intelligence in the poison-green eyes. “Ross stay in cage. Hulk go. Hulk good.” 

With that the Hulk turned around and walked away. He stopped at the door. “Hulk no fit. Banner come back,” he declared and the Hulk’s mass melted away leaving Bruce Banner behind. 

The guards opened the door and handed Bruce a fresh pile of clothing. “Thank you for your co-operation Dr. Banner,” one said. And the door swung shut behind them, leaving Ross forgotten in a cell built to hold a monster.


End file.
